He walked away from a colourful broadcasting career seven years ago, but there are some things TV personality Paul Henry can’t resist – and that includes taking part in a reality TV show based on lies, treachery and more lies!
It was announced this week that the 62-year-old is hosting a new Three show called The Traitors, in which Paul will be watching with “devilish delight” as Kiwi contestants backstab each other in the hope of winning a large cash prize.
Based on a Dutch series that premiered late last year, the show has already been turned into a massive hit in the UK, where it’s been streamed more than 34 million times, and Paul says he was in from the moment the New Zealand hosting job was offered to him.
“I love the fact that it pits people against people,” says the star, who these days refers to himself as “a retiree making and consuming gin”.
“In some cases, it pits friends against friends. Lying is one of the most wonderful tools a human being can use. I’ve always enjoyed using lies and now I’m being paid to do it – to supervise the lies of others and encourage the lies of others.”
In the hot seat as The Traitors host. “I’ve always enjoyed using lies and now I’m being paid to do it!”
The show, due to air later this year, has already been filmed in a secret New Zealand location with a top-secret cast.
The contestants were all required to stay at the same place and the format pits “Traitors” against “Faithfuls”. The Faithfuls are tasked with discovering exactly who they believe the Traitors are amongst them and voting them out.
Should the Faithful contestants eliminate all the Traitors, they will share the substantial prize money. But if any Traitors make it to the end, they’ll win the money instead.
“It’s very hard to pinpoint exactly what The Traitors is,” muses Paul. “It’s not a game show – it’s a show about a game. I love the fact that it is sophisticated aggression because I am aggressive in a sophisticated way.”
Stepping back into the limelight is a surprise move for Paul, who resigned from his top-rating MediaWorks show Paul Henry in 2016.
From there, he announced he was going into “semi-retirement”, and split his time between New Zealand and his home in Palm Springs in the US.
Paul and his late beloved mum Olive, who has a special place in his floating palace.
In 2018, the keen sailor took possession of a bespoke 24-metre “small ship”, which he named Olive, after his beloved late mother Olive Hopes, who died in 2016, aged 86.
He designed the vessel himself and it carries more than just Olive’s name – her ashes are incorporated into the floor of one of the suites and also into the coloured glass dome in the centre of the boat.
Joined by friends and family, Paul sailed the vessel from the Netherlands, where it was built, through the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Panama Canal, the Galapagos and Marquesas Islands, Taihiti, Rarotonga and Fiji.
In December 2019, he arrived back in Auckland and, due to Covid, that’s where Olive ended up staying.
Despite the chaos of the pandemic, 2020 turned into quite the year for the dad of three adult girls, Lucy, Sophie and Bella.
Paul and well-known Kiwi entrepreneur Diane Foreman wed eight days after Paul’s youngest daughter Bella tied the knot in March.
“It was just so obvious that it would be a waste of our lives not to marry,” he later told the Weekly, adding that days after their low-key nuptials, their honeymoon was “a government-enforced lockdown”.
Family (including Bella, pictured) will be all aboard for his cruisy birthday celebration.
“Thank God we get on well because that would have tested any marriage,” he laughed. “But we’re both homebodies and we just got on so well.”
That year, the broadcaster, who has launched a line of gin called The Henry, also dipped his toes back into TV with a month-long show called Rebuilding Paradise, about Aotearoa’s future after lockdown.
The Traitors, though, promises to be a very different offering. “I love that it encourages deceit, treachery and lying,” he laughs. “Here I am, lording it up over a group of semi-scared individuals for two weeks in an isolated place. That is so me and I relished it.”
Next on Paul list is something a little more sedate – Olive is due to depart Auckland for Fiji in mid-June. Friends and family will be joining Paul and Diane for the cruising season, which will include birthday celebrations on board for the couple.
