Sir Mo Farah has been revealed as the celebrity inside the costume portraying The Masked Singer host Joel Dommett.
The Olympian, who sang Lionel Richie’s Hello while dressed in a costume with a head and body that looked like Dommett, took off his mask when the show returned to ITV1 on Saturday.
Panellist Jonathan Ross correctly guessed the right name, and Sir Mo then joined the judging panel of the show, in which celebrities sing anonymously while dressed in an elaborate costume.
Sir Mo, 41, said: “It’s been incredible.”
Davina McCall and Maya Jama had incorrectly guessed that Geordie duo Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly were the “Giant Joel”, who had been teased before the show came back for a sixth series.
At the end of the episode, someone dressed as spaghetti bolognaise was selected to leave the competition, but the reveal was saved for Sunday’s episode.
The panel guessed comedian Ruby Wax, TV presenter Julia Bradbury, tennis star Emma Raducanu or Woman’s Hour presenter Anita Rani could be behind the mask.
Sir Mo also told ITVX and YouTube spin-off series The After Mask: “I’m used to running around stadiums, this is a different audience.
“It’s being able to have fun and honestly it’s amazing to have the team encouraging you. I can’t sing, I can’t dance, but it’s the taking part. ”
He also said that he “couldn’t tell my kids, they wouldn’t believe me”.
“One thing they asked me, ‘Dad you can’t dance, you can’t sing, please don’t embarrass us’,” Sir Mo added.
One of the clues was a Bafta, which Sir Mo won for a documentary in which he disclosed that he had been illegally trafficked to the UK as a child.
He is Britain’s greatest distance runner, a double Olympic champion over 5,000m and 10,000m in both London and Rio.
Dommett said he hopes to “keep the head”, and called it the “narcissist’s dream”.
“The reason that the celebrities on the show can’t keep their costumes is because what happens is the producers lend the costumes to different territories around the world, but no-one’s going to want Giant Joel, because no one knows who I am internationally,” he added.
“So I assume I can keep it, and I said to my wife (Hannah Cooper), ‘oh my god look at this’, and I showed her a photo of it and immediately she messaged back saying, ‘that’s not staying in the house’.”
The Masked Singer continues on Sunday at 6.30pm on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player.
The full interview is available to view on The After Mask on ITVX and YouTube: The Masked Singer UK.
