Golden Balls star who lost £100k in iconic 'split or steal' says show edited rival's final words

Stephen Bushnall was involved in one of British telly's most iconic moments - the moment when two people on gameshow Golden Balls had the chance to 'split or steal' a whopping £100k.

It's one of those TV moments which, thanks to YouTube, has etched itself into the memories of millions, like the time Bradley Walsh cracked up over Fanny Chmelar on The Chase or we witnessed history's greatest Come Dine With Me contestant... no, wait, the other one.

In the ITV gameshow Golden Balls, hosted by Jasper Carrott, contestants would attempt to find the golden balls with big money prizes in them while avoiding the 'killer' balls to build up the jackpot.

The show then came down to the climactic 'split or steal' moment where the final two contestants would have to decide whether they were willing for each person to walk away with half of the money or attempt to nab it all for themselves.

If both said they wanted to 'split' then they each got half the jackpot, if both attempted to 'steal' then nobody got anything.

However, if one person elected to 'split' and the other chose to 'steal' then the person who picked the latter option would walk away with everything, and therein lay the rub of the game.

ITV

The most iconic moment of this happened when £100k was on the line and contestants Stephen and Sarah promised each other they would split the prize.

In the episode Stephen said he was 'very happy to go home with £50,000' while Sarah said 'everyone who knew me would just be disgusted if I stole'.

Everything looked set for the pair to each walk out with half the jackpot, only for Sarah to take it all as she revealed she'd chosen to 'steal'.

She later said she 'wasn't proud' of what she'd done but having been the victim of a 'steal' in the previous episode she explained that 'just couldn't put myself through it again'.

Stephen said that Sarah never tried to reach out to him after the episode, remembering that as filming was wrapping up he was left 'literally head down in tears for 15, 20 minutes'.

However, he's since explained that their conversation about whether to split or steal was actually much longer than what we saw on our screens.

ITV

Speaking to the Daily Star, Stephen said they talked for up to 10 minutes, including a moment where they hugged, but in the final edit viewers only got to see a couple of minutes of it.

He said: "There were bits that weren't put in the final show, just bits where she said 'Let's stand both side-by-side next to Jasper and open the balls'.

"And 'If I steal my family would disown me' and other bits like that. She said we were going to go for a meal and celebrate after."

"There were tears and I got quite emotional - and that is why she totally hook line and sinkered me because I was 100 percent certain she was going to split."

Stephen said 'she played the game and she won'.