‘Survivor’: Michele Fitzgerald Defends ‘Controversial’ Season 32 Win Against Critics (VIDEO)

Alyssa Norwin January 16, 2025, 12:16 pm

Comments

It’s been nearly 10 years since Michele Fitzgerald was crowned the winner of Survivor Season 32, but she’s still haunted by comments that the $1 million victory was undeserving. However, years later, the reality star has been able to block out the noise and celebrate her feat.

“You know, a win is a win. I have a million dollars in my bank account,” she said on the Wednesday, January 15, premiere episode of her new podcast, The Social Game, with fellow Survivor alum Kellie Nalbandian. “But I will say, what I’ve learned from reality TV in general is that sometimes when you win, it feels like a loss, and sometimes when you lose, it feels like a win. And that was my win for me. I’m very poetic. In some ways, it was, for me, the biggest moment of my life. I was 24 years old, I was so green. I really didn’t even know what a confessional was. I just went in and played my heart out and thought the narrative would reflect that.”

However, when Fitzgerald saw the show, she realized her story wasn’t the only one to tell. “When I watched it back, I was like, ‘Oh my God, what am I even doing here? Did I even deserve this?’ A lot of people didn’t believe that I did. I was insecure about the win in general.”

She admitted that it’s been a “long process and a lot of therapy” for her to stop listening to the critics. “I should be proud of that moment,” The Challenge star insisted. “But I didn’t feel proud in the moment. It was very controversial. People still talk about it, but I don’t look at the Reddit threads anymore, so that has helped me. I’ve learned how to invest money properly and how to avoid Reddit.”

When Does 'Survivor' Return? Everything We Know About Season 48

Fitzgerald beat Aubry Bracco and Tai Trang in a 5-2-0 vote on Survivor: Kaôh Rōng, which aired on CBS during the first half of 2016. Many viewers felt that Bracco was the stronger strategic player and did not agree with the jury rewarding Fitzgerald’s social game instead. When the New Jersey native returned for Survivor: Winners at War, which aired in 2020, she opened up to legend Rob Mariano about how the backlash affected her.

“Let me tell you something — if you win, you win,” he assured her. “The end.”

She went on to place third at the final Winners at War tribal council and has since become a mainstay on MTV‘s The Challenge. The show’s 40th season recently finished airing, and viewers saw Fitzgerald take home $25,000 after finishing in third place.