A BBC Traitors star has made a surprising claim about the late Queen Elizabeth II that not many people would have known before. Alan Carr, who won the recent series of Celebrity Traitors, spoke about what it was like to be involved with The Royal Variety Performance.

Alan has been involved in three of the annual shows, and one year had the opportunity to meet the late monarch. In a recent episode of his travel-themed Life's a Beach podcast, the comedian spoke about this interaction with TV host Stephen Mulhern.

As well as sharing that he is a "big royalist", Alan also mentioned a fond memory of the late monarch at The Royal Variety Performance.

He then went on to claim that when the late Queen met One Direction with Alan in the room, she did not seem to realise who the boyband were.

When asked if he gets nervous at the shows, Alan said: "Oh, you do get nervous when you do them like that, but then I remember the late Queen when she was there, and, you know, I don't...she was just like that, smiling at me, and then she said to One Direction, 'What do you do?'.

"Well, you've just seen them half hour ago. They were heading the bill! I mean, 'What do you do?' I thought, 'Well, that's showbiz!'"

As well as meeting the late Queen, Alan has also met King Charles when hosting the show last year, along with Amanda Holden.

The comedian described the monarch as "really sweet" in 2024, shortly after meeting him.