The Golden God has ascended to The Golden Host. Tell us everything. How does it feel?

It really feels surreal. 2025 was such an insane year for me and getting to host Australian Survivor was the cherry on the sundae, a dream come true. The show and the people who make it had become such a big part of my life and identity I guess it was like dating for five years and hoping one day you will get married, and then they propose to you and you get to wear your dream wedding gown!

You’ve been out there three times and are now stepping into the role of host, what is it about the game of Survivor that keeps bringing you back?

The first time you play it’s a full reality shift on what you think is important and what you prioritise.  You get to find out what you are really made of, what challenges you can overcome and after you have experienced that you start chasing it. Survivor is the ultimate test of all your life experience and skills. It really shows you who you are and once you have a taste of that you want more.

What is it like watching the game from the host perspective, knowing how gruelling it is on the other side? Were you ever itching to get back into game play?

It so interesting to watch as a host, I would usually be thinking about how I would attack a challenge or a dilemma and it was so interesting to see how they would do it. I want it to be gruelling, I want it to be hard because when I played, overcoming that was so rewarding. The harder the better, the payoff is so much bigger. I was always itching to get back into the game, especially some of the bigger challenge obstacle courses. They are just so fun to run and compete on!

As a former contestant (and arguably the greatest), what do you notice now as host that viewers probably don’t?

Who is arguing that? Please send them my number. I can probably see when someone is getting setup much earlier than the viewer, there’s interesting power shifts and we can kind of call them before they happen.

Were there any moments where you’ve had to seriously stop yourself from giving players advice?

Yeah, all the time, but I just couldn’t! The idol play was especially hard because I would be thinking, WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT??!! DO THIS!! But I’m also eating three meals a day and sleeping in a bed.

As a seasoned player, were you quick to work out who each of the contestants were and what their strategies were or were you taken by surprise by some of the moves?

What I loved about this season is I was always surprised by the moves. Survivor strategy can move in waves and people will play the ebbs and flows but many times this season it felt like they would just stand and let a wave crash into them. It was carnage.

What trait gets you furthest in the game and what sends you home faster than you can say ‘the tribe has spoken’?

The trait that gets you furthest in the game is your social play, never showing you’re angry or frustrated to your tribemates until the right time. The fastest way to get sent home is to be annoying, everyone is already at their wit’s end and if you’re scraping the rice bowl with a shell at 3am in the morning, you’ve got to go.

You’ve played with Brooke and Harry, did that bring a different dynamic to the season?

I’m very good friends with both of them so I had to take a really hard line about not talking to them before the game started or showing them any preferential treatment because we respect the game above all else.  It was pretty fun to have them out there talking smack to me from the game mat. 

This season’s theme is ‘redemption’. Do you think that affected how people approached the game?

Definitely. When you are out there playing you kind of cling onto small things to keep you going. For me in season four it was being a “champion”, for season five we were thinking “We’re all stars, we have to be better!”. With redemption, everyone took it personally and really wanted to succeed, which made them play even harder.

In the past, you’ve been roughing it on the beach, what was it like getting to sit at Tribal… and then get to go back to an actual bed? 

It was awesome because I didn’t have to remember who I had lied to at tribal and then do damage control in the pitch black.