Traitors winner Harry Clark on his unlikely meeting with the Pope

Warning - this story contains discussion of suicidal feelings and mental health.

"He had aura, the Pope had aura," says Harry Clark on meeting the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, Leo XIV.

The Traitors winner set out to meet the Pope as part of his new BBC documentary Harry Clark Goes to Rome to help answer questions he had about his faith.

The pilgrimage is important for Clark, who says his faith helped him at a point in his life when he felt he had "lost everything".

Despite being raised Catholic, Clark explains he struggled with his faith and mental health after joining the Army at 16. "I saw what man could do to man and lost many friends to the actual war inside their head instead of the war we were trained to do," he says.

Details of organisations offering help and support with mental health, or feelings of despair are available at BBC Action Line.

He also says he had lost friends, a romantic relationship of seven years had ended and he'd been attacked after a night out and sustained a bleed on the brain that stopped him boxing, which up until that point had been a positive outlet for him.

"I actually was ready to basically end it all," Clark says.

He turned to his mum for advice and she told him to start praying again. Clark says it helped him feel grateful and led to him finding his own relationship with faith.

Clark says that he wanted to meet the Pope, who was elected in May 2025, to get answers on whether there was such a thing as a good or bad Catholic when it comes to practising their religion.

He succeeded - and in their meeting he says he chatted to the Pope about mental health and memes.

Clark says arranging a meeting with the Pope "wasn't easy" and that he and the production team tried everything they could. "I even rang the Vatican and they put the phone down on me," he says, adding: "I sent emails. I even sent him a DM. Like, who do I think I am?"

However, it paid off and soon Clark was in the Vatican nervously waiting to meet Leo XIV, unsure whether to shake his hand or what questions to ask.

"Suddenly everything just falls silent and the Pope just walks around the corner," Clark says, explaining a "sense of calmness" overcame him.

As the Vatican took over filming from the documentary crew during the private audience and did not use sound, Clark has recalled his experience of meeting the Pope.

Clark remembers: "He shook my hand first and he just simply went to me, hey Harry, I heard you want to meet the Pope? Well, here I am. And instantly I just went, wow. This is amazing."

Clark, who initially thought their meeting would be brief, was invited to a private audience, along with his mum and the director of the documentary.

The Pope, it turns out, knew a little about Clark's history, and had read some of his book: "He knew my struggles with mental health and he spoke about suicide," Clark remembers.

"He simply said to me that whether you have God in your life or not, people need to realise that life is worth living first. And that really took me back," Clark says.

Another point in the conversation, Clark remembers, was that while the Pope doesn't run his own social media accounts, "his brother now sends him memes" all the way from Chicago.

It was an unexpected end to their private audience, with Clark recalling: "He stood up and he goes, hey, Harry, watch this." Leo XIV then pushed a button and, Clark says, "the doors swing open with all his agents. And I'm like, 'I haven't done anything, I swear.'

"And he just starts laughing, giggling to himself and then walks off. And that was my meeting with the Pope."

Details of organisations offering help and support with mental health, or feelings of despair are available at BBC Action Line.

You can watch Harry Clark Goes to Rome on iPlayer now.