Piglet, Winner of ‘The Masked Singer,’ Revealed To Be Nick Lachey

Nick Lachey won last night’s episode of The Masked Singer, declaring, “Daddy’s coming home with a little hardware!” on stage after the win. Lachey took the top spot on season 5 of The Masked Singer, a singing competition where celebrities disguise themselves in costumes. The 98 Degrees member dressed up as a pig and went by the name Piglet.

Lachey, who signed on only four days before the show started, said the pig costume was the “first they threw at me.” He said that his kids also suggested a pig after he decided on it and that “substantiated my selection.” Lachey’s costume also connected to his hometown of Cincinnati, known as “Porkopolis,” as well as his production company, Flying Pig Productions.

Lachey revealed that he had told his kids about the possibility of performing on the show, but they didn’t know he actually decided to do it. However, his children guessed as soon as they heard his voice. Lachey told People, “We watched the premiere episode together and I was holding Brooklyn and I think I got two or three notes out of my mouth and she pointed to me, she goes, ‘Daddy.’ They recognized my voice immediately.”

Lachey stated that, while his kids knew he was Piglet, they didn’t know whether he had won or not, so the family watched the season together. He said, “We told them, ‘Yes, it’s me,’ but they don’t know if I win or not. So we watched the entire season and like, ‘Is this the night daddy goes home?’ It’s been a lot of fun to kind of share that whole ride with them. It became Masked Singer night in our house on Wednesdays and we all watched together and they nervously waited to see if I’d get unmasked that night.”

Lachey talked about how difficult it was to perform in the costume. He said, “You don’t go into it thinking it’s going to be a cakewalk but I didn’t really appreciate how heavy the costume would be. How much it kind of weighs on you. Especially in the beginning, I was having a really tough time catching my breath in there. They had an ice vest on to keep me cool because it was super hot in there, as you can imagine.”

The ice vest didn’t work for long, though. “I said, well get rid of that and I’d rather be hot than not be able to breathe. You’re never fully comfortable. That’s definitely the most challenging part of the show. There was a point the beginning where I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do this. It was just really tough. You know what it feels like to sing and perform. And I was like this isn’t it, this is not performing right now. I’m proud of the fact that we were all able to work together to get to a point where I could go out there and do what I need to do.”

While judges Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, and guest panelist, LeAnn Rimes guessed correctly that it was Lachey, the others did not. Nicole Scherzinger went with Backstreet Boys’ Brian Litrell and Ken Jeong thought it might be Jeremy Renner. However, it was Lachey who took home the Golden Mask trophy.