Traitors winner Meryl Williams - who has dwarfism - spent her show winnings on gruesome forehead reduction surgery which left her looking like she 'had a fight'

The Traitors star Meryl Williams has revealed she underwent forehead reduction surgery after the show and warned the procedure is ‘not for the fainthearted’.

Meryl, 27, has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia which affects the growth of cartilage and can lead to a larger forehead.

After winning season one of the hit BBC show as a Faithful with with Aaron Evans and Hannah Byczkowski, Meryl used her £33,000 share of the prize money on surgery,

Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Meryl confessed she was shocked by the initial results as it left her looking like she ‘had a fight’ and admitted she ‘went into hiding’ while she recovered.

Meryl approached a surgeon at London’s Harley Street Specialist Hospital in February last year and after two phone calls, a Zoom call, and one in-person appointment, Meryl went under the knife for two hours in July.

The Traitors star Meryl Williams has revealed she underwent forehead reduction surgery after the show and warned the procedure is ‘not for the fainthearted’ (right, after the surgery)

Meryl gathered a legion of fans after starring on season one of The Traitors last year

Having ‘always hated’ her forehead, in childhood she would always style a fringe in an attempt to hide, before gathering the funds to go under the knife.

The procedure involved having the upper part of her forehead removed and then her scalp lifted and moved forward.

Speaking about the recovery, Meryl shared: ‘I genuinely looked like I’d had a fight. I went into hiding for about a month and didn’t leave because it was yellowish and the bruising as well.

‘It looked a lot worse than it was and people thought I was in a lot more pain than I was.

‘Then I started noticing the hair loss, obviously with a cutting along the hairline, hair is going to fall out. I was fortunate enough that it did grow back.’

While she’s glad she had it done Meryl admitted that she wouldn’t want to do it again, explaining: ‘It’s not for the fainthearted!

‘But it was still the best decision and I’m so glad I’ve done it. I’m glad I’ve just got it out of the way. It’s something that I wouldn’t want to have to go through again.’

While her pictures may appear on the bloody and swollen side, the TV personality revealed in reality her forehead was numb for weeks.

The sensation was so surreal that she likened the feeling to ‘dead man’s fingers’.

Meryl, 27, has a form of dwarfism called achondroplasia which affects the growth of cartilage and can lead to a larger forehead

The Traitors season one winner exclusively told MailOnline how she used her £33,000 prize money on surgery, leaving her looking like she ‘had a fight’

The former BBC contestant, who lives with achondroplasia, approached a surgeon at London’s Harley Street Specialist Hospital in February, 2023

The procedure involved having the upper part of her forehead removed and then her scalp lifted and moved forward

Despite being on the table for a relatively short time, Meryl revealed that when she woke up, the results were not noticeable straight away because she was left looking like she ‘had a fight’

But the former call centre employee said even after the surgery, there was no instant result and explained that the operation is not for the ‘fainthearted’

Meryl revealed she has ‘always hated’ her forehead, and when she was younger, she would cut in a fringe in an attempt to hide its true size

Even when she had her stitches removed three weeks later, Meryl admitted that she didn’t feel anything.

She shared: ‘My forehead was still numb, so the stitches weren’t as bad to remove because obviously he was removing it from the area that was numb, but you could still kind of feel it.

‘You know, like dead man’s finger when someone’s touching it but you can’t feel it, but you can feel the sensation if that makes sense.’

Pain may not have been a side effect to worry about, but Meryl revealed she had to battle with a different side effect that she had never expected.

After being prescribed steroids, the content creator revealed that she struggled to stop eating and ended up eating six pieces of toast for breakfast and was queuing for Five Guys at 10am.

She said: ‘Oh, my God, my appetite increased so much. I was eating meat and I was at five guys at 10am for opening because I just wanted to. I was craving everything.

‘And then I told them, they said you can just come off that now because you are  clear going through the side effects.

‘I was just obsessed with food, I was having six pieces of toast for breakfast, not that that is a bad thing, but it was not good for me.

‘I was just obsessed like no amount of food was filling me up and then I told them. I think about two weeks, at least two weeks was the medication, and then it was just painkillers and stuff.’

After successfully winning the game as a faithful – along with Aaron Evans and Hannah Byczkowski – Meryl decided to spend her first £7,000 on shortening her forehead

She continued: ‘And that’s why now for the rest, if I ever get surgery again, I will be like do not put me on steroids because it was not good and it was summer as well.

‘It was not very good.’

After three weeks of recovery and waiting over six months for her hair to grow, Meryl revealed that she is only just starting to reap the benefits of her surgery as she has had to wait patiently for her hair to grow back.

Meryl said while she would not want to do it again, she is very happy with the results as she now has a little fringe growing in.

She still has much of her show winnings left and has not spent this much money on anything else since leaving the show.