Alejandro Mischke
Harriet Tyce finally made the decision to come clean about her profession on The Traitors as she revealed she is a former barrister and crime author.
It was a move that massively backfired, as despite going at Traitor Rachel with all that she had, Harriet was unable to convince her fellow Faithfuls and was banished as a result.
Yet away from the BBC reality show, Harriet has life of twists and turns of her own.
Educated at Oxford University and the daughter of a Lord and renowned judge, Harriet followed in her father’s footsteps and became a barrister.
But after ten years in the profession she left the legal sector, claiming to be a ‘terrible barrister’ due to her battle with alcohol abuse and wanting to focus on raising her children.
In 2021 the star also lost her best friend and journalist Sarah Hughes to breast cancer. The tragedy gave Harriet the motivation she needed to go sober and continue pursuing her dream career as an author.
Harriet’s personal life explains why she seemed nonplussed about being banished on Wednesday’s episode.
While other contestants are often hoping to win the life changing amount of cash, Harriet had no need for the money.
The former criminal barrister and her husband are estimated to have a fortune of £15million, with the latter earning around £3.5million a year as a City Trader.
The couple live in a large townhouse on a beautiful tree–lined street in the north London enclave of Highbury, known for its high concentration of so–called ‘champagne socialists’.
Nathaniel Tyce is said to earn around £3.5million a year at Japanese bank Nomura, where he is head of global markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Married to Harriet for 25 years, Nathaniel worked for Barclays for decades before making the switch, and friends told The Mail On Sunday that she and her husband are ‘absolutely minted’.
In fact, the pair could almost afford to buy Ardross Castle, where the BBC show is filmed, and Harriet always planned to donate the prize money to Breast Cancer Research Foundation, following Sarah’s death in 2021.
After attaining a degree in English from Oxford University in 1994, Harriet went on to qualify as a lawyer and worked as a barrister for almost ten years.
She followed in the footsteps of her famous father, Lord William Nimmo Smith who was a Senator of the College of Justice during his high profile career.
After attending Eton and Oxford University, he worked as a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland and at the High Court of Justiciary.
Harriet left the profession after welcoming her children Freddie, 21, and Eloise, 17, as she struggled to juggle motherhood and the legal sector and inspired by her love of Agatha Christie she decided to pursue her passion for writing.
In 2017, she won a place on the University of East Anglia’s creative writing MA course where she graduated with distinction.
She has now published four crime novels, the first of which, Blood Orange, was picked up by former This Morning hosts Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan for their book club.
Aside from her success professionally, Harriet is also celebrating being three years sober after having her last drink in June 2022 following a 34-year-long battle with alcohol.
In a 2024 article written for The Observer about her drinking, she claimed to have been ‘a terrible barrister’ due to her alcohol abuse.
Despite bragging of her abilities on the show, in her 2024 first-person piece about her alcoholism, she wrote: ‘I was systematically sabotaging myself, falling over in chambers in front of senior barristers and turning up late and hungover the next day.’
She conceded: ‘I wasn’t sabotaging my work any more and besides, I’d been a terrible barrister. Crime writing’s the sort of job you’d expect a drinker to do. But alcohol still took up too much space in my mind.’
Harriet cited the late Ozzy Osbourne’s words: ‘They either give up at 50 or they’re dead by the time they’re 60,’ and how they resonated with her.
She continued: ‘To return to Ozzy Osbourne, what he’s talking about is known as sniper’s alley, this time in our early 50s when it’s the last chance to make changes before we start being picked off one by one…
‘A couple of friends have already succumbed to addictions, their premature deaths awful to see. I’ve maybe left it too late to undo the damage I’ve done to myself…
‘But I’m giving it my best shot. Yoga, weights, running. I might even give cold water swimming a go.’
In one interview, she has said: ‘There are only so many blackouts a middle–aged mum should have. One of my best friends died in April 2021. It was cancer, it was terrible, and it was emphatically not alcohol–related in any way.
‘But we were born within two weeks of each other and seeing her life cut so short was a moment of reckoning for me. It was time to take care of myself.’
She has previously said that she is so grateful for her second chance at life that, if she had won The Traitors, she would have donated her prize to a breast cancer charity.
‘That’s the perfect way for Harriet to remember her friend,’ says a companion.
Her fifth novel Witch Trial is set to hit shelves next month and since appearing on the show in a clever marketing move, her sales are soaring.
According to The Book Seller, sales have increased by an incredible 95.6 per cent since she first hit screens.
The publication says copies purchased have shot up from typically 181 copies to 354, with her recent novel A Lesson In Cruelty credited for the increase.
Meanwhile, in the first week of January, The Lies You Told recorded 263 copies – 93.4 per cent more than the previous week.
One friend said: ‘Her husband is coining it in but so is Harriet. Traitors pays – look at her sales. She is not a stupid woman.’
Abbey Clancy, wife of former England footballer Peter Crouch, is also a big fan, telling Grazia magazine that she ‘couldn’t put [Blood Orange] down’.
It is understood Harriet has also bonded with Louise Minchin over her books as the ex–BBC Breakfast presenter commented ‘OMG this is brilliant’ under her announcement that she was to appear on Traitors. Now, though, she is winning many new fans.
The published author was sent packing from the castle in a tense roundtable on Wednesday after turning on Rachel backfired for her, with her fellow Faithfuls branding her ‘rude and erratic’.
Meanwhile, speaking following her banishment, Harriet told The Sun: ‘On the one hand, I’m gutted not to have got further.
‘I haven’t won therefore I’ve lost so it’s hard not to see it that way.
‘But on the other hand, I could not have asked for more action! I managed to find a way of fighting as myself and leaving on my own terms and I really don’t think many other people who’ve been through the game can say that.
‘If I were to swap with being there in the final but being duped, I’d take my short-lived game any day.’
Source: Dailymail.co.uk | Read the Full Story…
