Mike Adams was the bad boy of The Traitors NZ season two, but underneath the cloak, the New Plymouth builder is the polar opposite.
“I’m a very honest person when I’m not being a Traitor,” the 35-year-old laughs.
Despite this, Mike says he was desperate to play the role of the baddie.
“I thought being a Traitor was a free pass to be a prick and do whatever I want for a change,” he admits.
Mike went into the selection process with a plan to calm his nerves by focusing on the pulse in his thumb, but when he was chosen to be a Traitor by host Paul Henry, along with funeral director Whitney Greene and ex-cop Jane Massey, many players noted a different pulse – the throbbing vein on his forehead.
“That bloody thing!” he exclaims. “I’ve had it my entire life. My friends call it my ‘main vein’!”
Despite being named the shadiest player in an early mission, Mike managed to dodge too much suspicion from the rest of the cast. He played it cool and flew under the radar until his plot to get rid of fellow Traitor Whitney. He was rallying his troops and orchestrating her banishment, which Mike described as “a massive weight off my shoulders”.
But this sparked the remaining Faithfuls, led by Auckland marketing executive Utah Mann, to notice inconsistencies in his demeanour. They eliminated him in a landslide banishment.
However, Mike was relieved to be cut loose from the game.
“I was there to get out of my comfort zone. It gave me more of that than I wanted,” he reveals. “I found it difficult to be a bastard.”
In fact, when Mike was completing his exit interview, he could hear the victorious Faithfuls celebrating nearby.
“I’ve never been happier to hear people not want me in a room!” he tells.
While genuinely loving the company of every player in the house, particularly Whitney, Utah and Gore author Noel Calamas, Mike found it hard to get close to his fellow players.
“I really struggled with building a relationship through deceit. Lying to all these amazing people really bothered me. I thought being away like that was going to be a holiday, but it was the most isolating experience of my life.”
The usually stoic Mike says that his emotions were brought to the boil most of all when reflecting on his family at home. “I shed quite a few tears in the one-on-one interviews, but they didn’t make the cut,” he says.
The loving husband to Stacey and devoted father of Ida, five, has been a builder since the age of 16. He worked on oil rigs for five years before moving into property development and now residential building. He says his decision to appear on Traitors was definitely out of character. “Everyone who knows me said I was the last person they’d ever expect to see on reality TV,” he confirms.
He met Stacey when they were both in intermediate school. “We were friends. Then when I got to an age when I wanted to find a decent person, I just looked right in front of me,” he jokes.
Stacey is a hairdresser by trade, but while at home with Ida, she studied to become a real estate agent. They married in 2017 and Ida arrived two years later.
It was a brief but scary stint in hospital for Ida that led to Mike promising to donate any Traitors winnings to Gabby’s Starlit Hope. It’s a charity that creates play parcels for children and families forced to spend long periods in hospital.
Mike explains, “My daughter was hospitalised with pneumonia and it was devastating. Seeing that and imagining what people go through with a long-term fear of something happening to their child would be the worst experience in the world.”
Gabby Devine started Gabby’s Starlit Hope. She’s a young girl undergoing cancer treatment who wanted to perform random acts of kindness for kids in similar situations. The charity is close to Mike’s heart as Gabby was a student in Stacey’s friend’s class and her younger brother is now Ida’s schoolmate.
When Gabby sadly passed away, her parents Roland and Sarah Devine honoured her memory by continuing her legacy. “The parcels cost the charity $15 a box. They’re sending out hundreds a week, all around the country,” tells Mike. “All of the money goes to the charity. Gabby’s parents refuse to take a cut.
“They also help families needing food, clothing, washing machines, you name it.
“There was a child recently who wanted to be a chef, so they organised celebrity chefs to cook with them,” says Mike.
“It’s completely selfless and everything they do is so kind. They’re overstretching themselves as it is, so if I can do anything to help them out, I will.”
The Traitors NZ screens 7pm Mondays and Tuesdays on Three, and streams on ThreeNow. You can donate to Gabby’s Starlit Hope at gabbysstarlithope.co.nz.
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