Jonny Holloway, who appeared on The Traitors with Charlotte Chilton, has spoken out after he was accused of being the father of her daughter, Penelope
Charlotte Chilton’s The Traitors co-star has finally addressed the claims that he’s the father of her daughter. Charlotte has long accused singer Conor Maynard of being the father of her daughter, Penelope, after the pair had a one-night stand after meeting at the wrap party of her series in January 2024.
Throughout Charlotte’s pregnancy, Conor remained silent after she claimed he wanted nothing to do with her daughter, Penelope, who was born last year. Shortly after Charlotte’s daughter was born, Conor took a paternity test, which revealed he was, in fact, not the father.
But Charlotte was “shell-shocked” when the results came in and instantly demanded a second test. It came after there had been claims that an unidentified man was present when Conor’s DNA sample was collected. But, like the first Ministry of Justice-accredited DNA test, the second result came in, stating that Conor was not the father.
Despite this, Charlotte has continued to claim that the Cherry On Top singer is the dad. She believes that the tests were negative due to a rare medical condition called chimerism. “I can categorically say it is impossible, there is nobody else that Penelope could have came from,” she said.
Earlier this week, Conor revealed he’d been sent a direct message from Lauren Ward, the ex-wife of Charlotte’s co-star, Jonny Holloway, who she alleged had confessed to sleeping with Charlotte around the same time as Conor. Jonny says he and Lauren split before he started filming the hit show. The singer shared a screenshot of a message, with permission from Ms Ward, reading: “My ex-husband is Jonny Holloway, one of the Traitors. he told me he slept with Charlotte around the same time as yourself / she fell pregnant.”
Conor explained he shared the message as he felt as though he had no choice while continuing to state he was not Penelope’s father. Taking to Instagram in view of his 34,500 followers, Jonny said: “Imagine waking up when you’re in the middle of moving house from a separation that happened before The Traitors started filming, that your ex-wife is insinuating you cheated on her.”
Prior to Jonny’s comment, Conor told fans on social media: “I feel that the main reason that people are still doubting me in this situation is because of the statement that Charlotte is making in the clip that I’m currently reacting to.
“You know, I don’t and have never wanted to expose or air out someone’s private matters but surely you guys have to understand that there comes a point where I have to defend myself.” Addressing the claims that he could have perhaps bribed the DNA companies, Conor said: “I can understand that with Charlotte saying it can only be me, ‘It can only be Conor, Conor is the only person it can be’, that a lot of you are going to be looking for your own explanations as to why two separate court accredited DNA tests showed that I am not the father.
“You’re going to be looking at rare medical biological cases of someone that carries two sets of DNA. You’re going to being thinking, ‘Oh Conor must’ve paid off these multi-billion-dollar DNA testing companies,’ I don’t have that much money, believe me, that would be great but I don’t.
“And also money aside, I wouldn’t do that! If the DNA test showed that I’m the father, then I’m the father and then this whole timeline would be different. But that isn’t what happened.” He added: “But I hope with this new information that I’ve been given, that you can see that there is just a high likelihood that Penelope is someone else’s daughter.”
Charlotte appeared to respond to Conor’s social media post just hours later. Resharing a gif on her Instagram Stories, the caption read: “You ever heard a rumour about yourself and actually wanted to hear more. Like damn… What did I do next?”
Last month, Conor spoke exclusively to the Mirror and revealed that he believed the situation could have been handled privately. One lyric in his song, Cherry On Top reads: “You talk too much, please shut up,” but he says this was said in jest. He told us: “Obviously, a lot of the lyrics of the song are said somewhat in jest, but I think they mainly point to how this entire situation could have been avoided.
“I was always of the opinion that the whole thing could and should have been dealt with quietly and privately, especially since none of it had even been proven before it reached the court of public opinion. It had zero benefit from being so publicly carried out, but obviously, it’s too late for that now; what’s done is done. So I think that lyric kind of points to the fact that maybe it’s sometimes better to deal with things properly before shouting them from the rooftops.”
The Mirror understands that Conor only found out that Charlotte had made the claims so publicly when his team were inundated with emails asking for a comment on the allegations.
The Mirror has approached Charlotte’s representative for comment.
Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.