Gladiators winner Marie-Louise Nicholson spills on nail-biting win, future plans and more

Virgin Radio

2 Apr 2024, 15:32

Gladiators’ winner Marie-Louise Nicholson joined Ryan Tubridy on his mid-morning show to spill all the secrets relating to her incredibly close win.

Phoning in to Ryan’s Virgin Radio UK programme after her remarkable win aired on BBC One over the bank holiday weekend, Nicholson gushed that she was still “buzzing” from the whole experience, which was filmed last year.

The proud Irish woman took the Gladiators reboot’s women’s title after beating fellow remaining contestant, firefighter Bronte Jones, in a strength and endurance race so close it required a photo finish to decide its result.

“I actually didn’t know it was that close until watching it back on Saturday,” the now London-based personal trainer admitted to Ryan on Tuesday (2nd April). “I knew I was like two seconds ahead, [but] I didn’t know it was a photo finish.”

Explaining how she got involved with the show, Marie-Louise described how she and a friend happened across an ad for the reboot's trials but “never did [she] think” she’d make it to the live shows, let alone win the competition!

Filming for Gladiators took place in June 2023, meaning the former private chef turned fitness geek had to keep the secret of her win for quite some time.

“There was great excitement leading up to [it airing], and then each week having family and friends sitting around watching it,” the champion contestant said.

Thankfully, it wasn’t necessary for Marie-Louise to keep too many secrets as many of her family members were in the 5000-strong crowd watching the show live when she won. “So they knew the results, but they had to keep it on the DL [from the others] as well.”

Opening up about what her plans are post-Gladiators success, the PT suggested she’d like to make the most of her new stardom by appearing more on TV. “I’d love to kind of promote my online programmes, and then also get into TV. Maybe sign up for another show - maybe MasterChef,” the former professional cook suggested.

Gladiators is available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.

Listen to Ryan Tubridy’s mid-morning show every weekday 10am-1pm on Virgin Radio UK.