‘Survivor 46’ Winner Kenzie Petty Opens Up About Shocking Jury Vote and Her Life ‘Staying the Same’ After Million Dollar Win

Survivor 46 came to a dramatic end with 29-year-old Kenzie Petty $1 million richer after being crowned Sole Survivor. Petty beat Charlie Davis, 26, by a single jury vote.

“I was like, I’m just going to keep smiling because either I won a million dollars or my friend did, and those are two reasons to smile,” Petty said. Yahoo Canada about the moment right before she found out she had won Survivor 46. “Then I immediately felt very sad for Charlie and Ben (Katzman).”

One of the biggest surprises of the night was Maria Shrime Gonzalez shockingly voting for Petty over Davis, the person she had apparently had an incredibly close bond with for much of the season.

For Gonzalez, she shared that watching Petty build a fire, stumbling but never giving up, really spoke to her. Additionally, as a 48-year-old mother, Petty’s desire to use that money to support herself, start a family, and work in a salon (now a salon owner) since the age of 15, has given I want Gonzalez to vote for Petty to win. .

“The pride she had in herself spoke to me on a different level that transcended the game,” Gonzalez told Yahoo Canada. “As a mother, I put a lot of my dreams and goals aside to selflessly give them to my family, and being on this show was 100% the most selfish choice I was going to make, and I had the support of my family to do it.”

“It was the moment to say that this is about me and that I’m going to fight for something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. So when Kenzie said, I’ve been working since I was 15, I didn’t I didn’t say. I don’t have the luxury of being the teenager that everyone else was, I want this money for myself,… I tell myself that she reads my mind why I’m here.. .I was so proud to have done that as a woman in my 40s, it took me 47 years to make that choice, and she’s in her 20s, and I was so proud that. she owns it.”

Looking back on what she told the jury, Petty emphasized that she simply “spoke from (her) heart.” Petty also announced that she was pregnant and now starting a family.

“I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Petty said in a separate interview. “The only reason I got (Maria’s) vote was because I was just being true to myself and honest.”

“I’ve worked my whole life. I’m literally investing money. Everyone’s like, ‘Aren’t you going to work?’ I’m like, no, I’ll be back to work full time on Tuesday. Ma life remains the same. It’s just my financial security and I can take longer maternity leave. I’m happy to know that my truth resonated with someone on the jury.

In terms of strategy throughout the game, Petty is particularly open about the fact that she made it all the way to the end without making any massive moves.

“It was really difficult to act with such a large group of people,” Petty said. “I convinced Hunter (McKnight) not to play his idol, but it wasn’t a flashy move.”

“I was very sociable, it was my choice. I’m not going to try to pretend that I made any big moves because at the end of the day, I didn’t. I made friends .”

“I was guilty of voting against my friends”

When it came to transitioning off the island, Petty had many different feelings.

“I felt guilty for voting against my friends and for beating Charlie and Ben and Liz to the fire, all these people that I love and care about,” she explained. “And then you get this weird (feeling) like I want to go back.”

“It was so easy on the island. No bills. … We came home on a Friday and I went back to work on Tuesday. I was like, I’m going to have to work after five weeks, so I didn’t not done. It doesn’t really take time to acclimatize or adjust to normal life.

Right after Petty was crowned the winner, she returned by boat with Davis and Ben Katzman, and the three finalists spent time together.

“The three of us ended up hanging out in a bathtub in one of our rooms…and then we all had a sleepover and the three of us really took the time to calm down,” she said. she shares.

With her Survivor trip ending in victory, if Petty was asked to return, she’s not particularly sure she’d rush for another opportunity to be on the island.

“I will never say never, but I am also very grateful to have had a Survivor experience,” Petty said. “I crossed everything off my to-do list except find an idol, …on 46 You didn’t want an idol anyway.

“I am very at peace with my Survivor journey. But at the same time, if they call, how do you say no to Jeff (Probst)?”