EXCLUSIVE: The Masked Singer’s sloth Katie Noonan reveals the elaborate lengths she had to go to keep her identity secret

ARIA-award winner Katie Noonan is the latest Aussie star to leave The Masked Singer‘s judges Dave Hughes, Dannii Minogue, Jackie O Henderson and Urzila Carlson gobsmacked after taking off her mask on last night’s episode.

In the addictive reality show, the 43-year-old was hidden under a towering Sloth costume and the talented singer admits she tried to disguise her voice so as not to give the game away!

Fresh from her elimination, Katie chats about the crazy lengths she went to keep her identity secret and spills on a chance encounter that has her convinced she knows who Puppet is.

What was going through your mind after the big reveal unfolded?

I’ve had the best time, it’s a really great show. It’s escapist family fun, which I think more than ever the world needs. I watched it – so I’m in hotel quarantine in Queensland [after filming the show in Melbourne] and I live on the Sunshine Coast so I watched it via FaceTime with my kids. They didn’t know, so that was really fun, the only person who knew was Jesse, my manager and my husband.

So I had the television on in the hotel room which I haven’t left for nine days, just quietly. And we watched it together live and it was so much fun! I was bizarrely nervous because I haven’t seen the footage, I haven’t seen anything until the rest of the country does so I was actually quite nervous, but yeah it was really fun. I had a ball!

How did your kids react?

My boys are 15 and 14 so they’re probably a little older than the core Masked Singer children demographic and always they’re boys, so there aren’t any explosions, so they’re probably not that interested.

So I rang them and was like “Hey do you want to watch The Masked Singer live?” and they’re like, “Sure, do we know someone on it?”

They thought it was a friend of ours and I was like “Yeah, maybe” and then after a while they went ‘Oh my God’, as the penny’s dropped.

Were there any clues about you that people who actually knew you were able to tell instantly that it was you?

The clues are pretty cryptic. They all make sense to me of course because it’s my life. But the clues are pretty cryptic so there were lots of random things like I was holding up a newspaper that said “Topless dancer scandals” and that’s because my great aunty was a dancer on in the 30s.

She was one of those dancers who – the only way you were allowed to be topless was if you stood there completely still like a statue. And then she went, that’s boring, I’d prefer to have clothes on and dance. My grandfather was a clown – quite literally. So that’s why there was the clowning stuff.

I was typing an Indigenous name for koala who was the mascot for the Commonwealth Games and I was the musical director for the Opening and Closing Ceremony.

So to me, it all made sense but it is very, very cryptic. I think people had a little hint when it said it comes from a colourful family, they’re all singers.

How different was it to perform in a costume rather than performing as yourself?

They’re really different – can’t really compare. In the costume, I’ve got a back brace on, I’ve got a massive metal rod down my back holding up my 240cm frame because I’m 170cm so there was almost a metre of stuff above me.

I had a crash helmet on, my visibility is probably six centrimetres by one centimeter. Tiny, tiny window of visibility and I’m in this amazingly huge costume with zero air flow so it’s very hot.

Very different, I did get nervous but I channeled that into Sassy Sally the Sloth kind of vibes. My favourite bit was just before the singing, I was able to close my eyes and enjoy the moment and not care what I looked like.

The Masked Singer is obviously quite strict about keeping the identities’ secret, did you go to any extreme lengths to keep it all under wraps?

The only person I told who was doing it was my family and my manager, so they were sworn to full on secrecy because you basically sign a contract and they’re very, very serious about the secrecy.

When you drive to and from set, and on set, you wear this big black cloak thing which covers your whole head. You can’t see really and your security guard guides you wherever you’re going. You’re not allowed to talk, no is allowed to hear your voice. It’s extremely, extremely high security.

I can 100 per cent say I never saw or heard anybody else in my time there. Except I overheard someone doing a vocal warm up which I think was Puppet which I’m pretty sure is Simon the Wiggle. But I was hearing his voice because it was so loud. I was literally going to the toilet and I was like “Holy Moly,” it’s so loud. That’s the only voice I heard and that was for a few seconds.

Do you have any guesses for any of the others?

Yeah, totally. For me, it’s extremely obvious that The Queen is Kate Miller-Heidke. It’s clear as day. I’ve known Kate 20 years. She’s definitely The Queen.

I do think Puppet is The Wiggles’ Simon, the red Wiggle. I think Frillneck is Eddie Perfect, I’m pretty certain about that. I had no idea who Goldfish was so that was a real surprise because I love Christine Anu. But she’s such a pro she was trying to disguise her voice like I was. If she sang like herself, I reckon I would have recognized it.

Who else? I think Kitten is Celeste Barber, that’s my pick. I think Cactus is Lucy Durack. I thin Dragonfly is Courtney Act. I’ve got no idea who Bushranger is – that’s the only one I don’t know. I think the Wizard is Isiah Firebrace.

I think the rest of them, they may not be professional singers but they’re definitely professional entertainers. Like, the sporty people got out first I think. I would be surprised if the others weren’t some form of entertainment.

This story originally appeared on our sister site, Who.