The Circle’s Manrika Khaira reveals ‘Felix’ betrayal ruined her trust for future relationships

The Circle’s Manrika and ‘Felix’ – aka Natalya – had an awkward relationship (Picture: Channel 4)

The Circle star Manrika Khaira revealed that being catfished by ‘Felix’ – aka Natalya Platonova – will stop her opening up to anyone in the future.

Viewers were glued to their screens for the moment the pair finally came face-to-face, to see the moment Manrika realised she had been catfished into a relationship by Natalya, who was playing the game as paratrooper Felix.

The star was visibly reeling by the reveal, but managed to keep her composure throughout the tense finale – which saw her ‘Circle boyfriend’ take home the £100,000 prize money.

Chatting to Metro.co.uk about the scenes, she explained that her experience on the Channel 4 show will impact her relationships going forward.

‘It was a bit of flanter, and a bit of fun and games but I kept my guard up which I do,’ she said. ‘It’s not just in the show, I keep my guard up a lot when it comes to relationships and stuff like that. Because of past experiences, you just do. 

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‘So I kept my guard up, and I started to let my guard down a little bit on our date. Natalya turned around and was like, “I’d never hurt you. I want you to feel like you can open up to me”. So I did. That was probably the worst thing for me to watch.

Manrika’s face when she learnt the truth was truly iconic (Picture: Channel 4)

‘It’s just crazy, she played a blinder of a game, don’t get me wrong. I cannot praise the woman enough. But just little things like that, it’ll stop me, in the future, from opening up to anyone. I just won’t do it.

‘Obviously I know who I’m speaking to most of time but you just don’t know what people’s motivations and intentions are anymore. So things like that just put you off.’

The show was filmed last September but only aired on our screens over the last few weeks, meaning we now have a circle-shaped hole in our hearts.

Natalya ended up winning the show as catfish Felix (Picture: PA)

Manrika’s ‘romance’ with ‘Felix’ was a major plot of this year’s series – with the real Felix messaging her to apologise over the scenes.

Lifting the lid on the worst moment to watch back on TV was, she joked that her budding ‘romance’ with her fake ‘action man’ was definitely not ideal viewing.

‘My date with Felix is up there with one of the worst things I had to watch,’ she continued. ‘No, actually, the first flirtatious conversation I had on that cowboy night… I was screaming, I was physically gagging. Honestly, I was gagging. 

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‘Everything else is quite enjoyable to watch back, it’s just that. It’s just cringe, isn’t it? I will flirt with a brick wall, this is the problem. 

‘Me doing that is just a bit of banter, everyone just thought I’d fallen in love with this army woman / guy. But that’s just me and this is why I end up getting myself into this.’

The Circle is available to watch on All4 now, with all episodes on catch up.

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