Throughout Survivor history, Jeff Probst’s show has welcomed several fantastic players who helped make some seasons better than the rest. Fortunately for Tina Wesson, most Survivor fans recognize how masterfully she played during her first season. That fact is even more impressive given what she was put through.
Even though new fans who are figuring out which seasons to watch first may not realize it, Survivor can be a very dangerous game. After all, many Survivor players have been medically evacuated over the years. While passionate Survivor fans know about those evacuations, most have no idea that Tina once revealed the show permanently affected her body.
Tina Wesson Revealed How Her Body Changed Forever Because Of Survivor
As Survivor’s 2nd winner ever and the first woman to win the show, Tina Wesson has gone down in the show’s history. On top of that, Tina was highly likable throughout her various Survivor appearances, which also made fans care about her.
Given her place in the show’s history and how invested viewers were in her, it seems clear that Survivor fans wanted the best for Tina. As it turns out, however, most Survivor fans have no idea about a major way that the show affected Tina.
In March 2021, Tina spoke to Entertainment Weekly about her Survivor experience. During that conversation, she revealed the shocking truth that playing Survivor permanently changed Tina’s body.
At the time that EW spoke to Tina, it had been more than two decades since she played Survivor for the first time. As a result, it was fascinating to see her reflect on how playing the reality show affected her life.
How successful was Tina Wesson during Survivor?
Season: | Placement: |
|---|---|
Survivor: The Australian Outback | Sole Survivor |
Survivor: All-Stars | 1st Voted Out/Day 3 |
Survivor: Blood vs. Water | 4th Place/17th Voted Out/8th Jury Member/Day 38 |
During the interview, EW’s reporter asked Tina what it was like when she returned home after playing Survivor. While the interviewer asked if she suffered culture shock, Tina immediately reflected on how Survivor affected her health.
As Tina explained to the outlet, her appetite was never the same after she played Survivor. The former Survivor winner also told the outlet how that has affected her body weight over the years.
“I had the most difficult time returning from
Survivor: The Australian Outback
. I can honestly say I’m not sure my body has ever fully recovered. I rarely have gotten above 115 since my return. I don’t eat very much still. It’s as if my stomach permanently shrunk.”
Looking back at how brutal Survivor: The Australian Outback was, it makes sense that Tina’s appetite and weight were affected. Now that it has been more than two decades since Survivor: The Australian Outback aired, some fans may have forgotten the starvation that happened during that season.
At one point, as the season progressed, many of the players were suffering. A perfect example of that involves the person now known as Elisabeth Hasselbeck. During the season, Elisabeth became so malnourished that chunks of her hair began to fall out.
In May 2021, Elisabeth Hasselbeck was interviewed by
Entertainment Weekly
about her
Survivor
experience. During that conversation,
Elisabeth was asked if her missing hair grew back
once she could eat again. “It took a while. It didn’t stop falling out until mid-January. I’m used to putting it up in crazy knots. I was losing huge clumps of hair so it just got to the point I needed not to ever tie it up for a while.”
Throughout Survivor history, there have been many times when players have been allowed to suffer.
However, things got so bad during Survivor: The Australian Outback that the show’s producers decided that they had to step in.
After the players were incredibly lethargic during a challenge, Jeff Probst showed up at their camp. Jeff then proceeded to tell the players that it was questionable if they would make it through the season and offered them more rice.
Of course, Jeff rarely gave anything to the tribes without taking something from them unless it was won in a challenge. In this case, Jeff demanded everything they used for shelter during Survivor: The Australian Outback; tarps and a flag. Clearly starving, the players quickly accepted Jeff’s offer.
Tina Wesson Once Revealed That Survivor: The Australian Outback Helped Her Health Too
Unfortunately for Tina Wesson, she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis before she played Survivor: The Australian Outback. However, while Tina was playing the game, viewers never saw her obviously suffering from the autoimmune disorder.
In August 2001, Tina appeared on CNN Live This Morning to try to raise awareness of how to cope with rheumatoid arthritis. During that conversation, Tina explained that she never felt any symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis during Survivor: The Australian Outback.
In response, the interviewer asked Tina the obvious question. Why? Tina explained that she believed a combination of several factors allowed her to feel healthy while playing Survivor.
“I think it’s probably a combination of three elements: One is that it was 120 degrees out there, so the warmth got in joints and it felt wonderful; I was on a strict rice diet, which there wasn’t a lot of food additives in my system; and the third point is, whenever I’m here at home I’m usually a little excessive in my exercising, out there I have hours and hours and hours of nothing to do but rest.”
The duality of Tina’s body improving and then going on to change forever seems to epitomize the Survivor experience. After all, Tina’s life clearly improved because of Survivor, but she also obviously paid a price for the experience.
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