Make a pretence of being willingly overheard (5)
I believe the answer is:
feign
'make a pretence of' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'willingly overheard' is the wordplay.
'willingly' becomes 'fain' (synonyms).
'overheard' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'fain' is a homophone of 'FEIGN'.
'being' is the link.
(Other definitions for feign that I've seen before include "outdated shape" , "Simulate, fake" , "Copy" , "Counterfeit, simulate" , "Affect" .)