The Circle’s Rachel Ward Claims Several Alums ‘Stopped Talking’ to Her: I ‘Don’t Benefit Them Anymore’

The Circle is all about finding popularity and friends through social media, but Rachel Ward found that it didn’t extend long after they left the competition.

“When you thought you were friends with people from The Circle but they stopped talking to you because you don’t benefit them anymore,” Rachel, 25, captioned a Tuesday, July 4, TikTok video of herself.

Rachel — who competed on season 3 of The Circle, catfishing as her friend’s boyfriend Jackson — did not reveal which Netflix stars had ceased communication with her, but did seemingly shade them while lip-synching the phrase, “You are a normal, regular civilian. Act like it,” in the clip. Ward also captioned her post with three clown emojis.

Several of Rachel’s former competitors took to her TikTok comments to express their shock about her revelations.

“MY JAW DROPPED,” Daniel Cusimano, who also appeared on season 3, replied, while season 4’s Alyssa Ljubicich noted that she “gasped” and asked, “Who are we fist-fighting?”

Rachel replied to Alyssa on Wednesday, July 5: “HAHAHA ily.”

Many eagle-eyed social media users began theorizing which The Circle alums could have been her target, especially after Matt Pappadia commented that he “cannot wait for Nick [Uhlenhuth] to see this.” While fans quickly thought Matt’s message meant that season 3’s Nick, 29, was the former friend in question, Ward shut that speculation down.

“I love Nicky,” she gushed in the comments, referring to the Perfect Match alum.

Though Rachel didn’t name any names, she did acknowledge one commenter’s speculation that the cast"just like[s] to mess with us.” The reality TV alum succinctly replied: “Confirmed.”

Rachel was one of the OG contestants on The Circle season 3, which aired in fall 2021. Competitors — who can play as themselves or as catfishes — aim to win a monetary reward by ranking each other and surviving "blockings," all while living in isolation from each other and only being able to communicate via "circle chat" and private messages.

“When I was auditioning for the show, I was like, ‘What’s gonna get me on the show?’ Not being myself,” she previously said during an October 2021 appearance on the “Reality Alert” podcast. “There’s probably 100,000 other blonde bitches in L.A. that want to play themselves, so I was like, ‘I have to be creative and give them something they haven’t seen.’ So, that was being a catfish.”

Since leaving The Circle, Rachel had continued to keep in touch with many of her former costars, including Nick.

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“She lives in L.A., and I live in Austin. We haven't been able to do too much dating,” Nick told Bustle in September 2021, noting that they’ve casually “been chatting” since leaving the competition.