Yorkshire scaffolder wins The Inheritance… and splits winnings with rivals

Cam has been named the winner of Channel 4’s The Inheritance. The Yorkshire scaffolder, 28, won the vote amongst his fellow finalists to be the ultimate Prime Beneficiary, receiving a £100,000 fortune from The Deceased’s estate. 

Faced with the cash, Cam had the option to keep all the winnings for himself, adding to the £10,000 he’d accumulated across the game. Instead, he chose to share the inheritance with Emma, Hafsah, Hannah and Jesse, gifting them £20,000 each to add to their money already banked. 

While Cam inherited a total of £30,000, wedding planner Hannah and student Jesse received £28,200 each, marketing manager Hafsah pocketed £27,700 and paramedic Emma took home £23,800.

On winning, Cam said: “I’ve had debt hanging over my head for years, I can’t describe the feeling of a fresh start. My dad taught me integrity and in that strong room it is literally a battle between your head and your heart. To be able to change the lives of four other people too, I am so happy and proud.”

Earlier in the final episode of the series, health and wellbeing advisor Tia missed out a chance to play for the final inheritance when Hannah cut her from The Deceased’s will. Tia left the game with £7,400.

Catch up with The Inheritance on Channel 4 now: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-inheritance

For interviews with the other players in the final, see the press pack here: https://www.channel4.com/press/press-pack/inheritance-final

Interview with Cam following his win on The Inheritance:

How does it feel to have won the whole show?
It feels so surreal to have won it even though I always maintained confidence in myself to make it right through to the end, and it just shows that hard work pays off.

Did you have a strategy from the start, and did you stick to it?
My strategy from the start was to just be myself and have confidence in myself that people will see that I’m a people person and a grafter.

What were your first impressions of everyone when you first met them?
My first thought when I met everybody was – this is a good group here; I can tell just by looking at people. Obviously, there’s always a couple of snakes in the grass, but you don’t know that from first impressions. 

Was there anyone that you were particularly close to?
Straight away I think I gravitated towards Jesse, just because he was a young lad, and I think he might’ve looked a bit nervous when I first arrived, and I just wanted to take him under my wing straight away.

Were you happy with who you had there with you right at the end?
Definitely, I’m really happy.

Speak about that decision then – dividing up the money but amongst everyone equally, that’s incredible!
I know, we all spoke about it in the final division ceremony, dividing all the money up, and I think it’s easy to say you would. However, when you get down into that room, and you’ve got a hundred thousand pounds in front of your face, you start thinking about everything back at home and how much it could change your life. It really is a tough decision but at the end of the day I’m a team player, and I’m just so happy that I did make the decision I made.

Let's discuss the requests that you had to take part in. Did you have favourites? Did you have any that you hated? 
Every day was something completely mental. I loved the first one in the lake and it was such a fun way to start the whole thing. I think the festival one was my favourite though - I absolutely loved that, I had a really good time and it was the first time we did something as a team together. The snakes were challenging…I've been terrified of snakes since I was a kid, so putting a hand in there, I really faced some fears and grew as a person that day.

Do you think you've learned something about yourself throughout this whole experience?
I’ve learnt so much about myself throughout this whole experience. I’ve always had trouble with really backing myself. I’d say I’m a confident person, but I think it was Hafsah that told me I was clearly having trouble celebrating myself for my own achievements. I think the more it’s gone on, now I can really start to do that, and it’s really changed how I think about myself. 

Were there any decisions that you found particularly hard throughout?
I think the first time I was in the strong room, and the way that I had divvied up the money. I wanted to sort of give a little bit more to a certain number of players, but I feel like I might’ve played the game too much and then almost bought my way into an alliance. So, that was a bit tough for me. 

Have you thought about what you're going to spend your winnings on?
The second that money hits my bank I’m just paying off all my credit cards, every debt I’ve had and then have a full fresh start with that. 

Looking across the entire experience, do you have a standout highlight?
It was all so amazing. I think the standout highlight was getting selected for the prime beneficiary for the third time. It wasn’t like I’d never been down there before, but it felt like the real backing of the team there. 

Looking at the other players - was there anybody that really surprised you? Anybody you were really sad to see go? Was there anyone you were particularly close to? 
To be fair, everyone has surprised me, Hafsah surprised me with how much she got stuck in. I was quite sad to see Matt go as well. It was strange because at the start I might have perceived him as something of a threat, a strong competitor…I thought we were very similar. And when he did go, I was actually quite sad to see him go because I thought a lot of him.

Is there anything that's going to be a big abiding memory for you? Any of fun moments from the requests, maybe?
I think just running around a field putting up them tents with everybody at the festival. It was such a good laugh because it was organised chaos. But when we got into the rhythm of it, we were all laughing and joking. I stopped in that moment and actually took it in a bit and thought, this is so cool what we’re doing. 

How did you find your moments with The Executor, Rob Rinder? 
Down in that strong room with The Executor is ridiculously intense. He stares straight into your soul, and I think when you're in that moment there's a lot of big decisions to be made, and it was really intense down there.

If you could sum up your entire experience in three words, what would those three words be?
Positive, surreal and crazy.