‘Survivor’ 45 Winner Dee Valladares Talks Her Final Tribal Council Bombshell (Exclusive)

Survivor Season 45 winner Dee Valladares was feeling “pretty confident” walking into the final Tribal Council alongside Austin Li Coon and Jake O’Kane – but she knew she still needed to play her cards right when it came to dropping a major bomb about her gameplay. Dee opened up to PopCulture.com following Wednesday’s Survivor season finale, revealing exactly what she was thinking when it came to her final pitch and where she and Austin stand today after developing a romantic relationship on the island. 

Going into the final Tribal Council, Dee was confident her strong gameplay – which included three Immunity Challenge wins – would earn her the votes to be crowned Sole Survivor.  “I needed to be confident, just like going into Survivor. You’ve got to be delusional to think you’d even go on the show, right?” she told PopCulture. “So I was feeling pretty confident, I’m not going to lie, because I knew how my game differentiated from Austin and Jake.” 

Dee made it clear during Jury questioning just how much of a winning game she had played, shocking even her closest ally Austin when she revealed to everyone that she had indeed passed on his tip about Julie Alley’s impending boot, getting Julie to play her idol and save herself. The following vote, Dee didn’t return Austin’s favor when she knew his number one, Drew Basile, was on the outs.  

Waiting until Final Tribal Council to reveal the ways she had gotten one over on even Austin was a move Dee always intended to make. “I always planned to keep that info until Final Tribal – unless I got voted out before,” she revealed. “But no, that was the whole point. Because what would that have shown of my gameplay had I mentioned it early on?”

Dee continued, “I didn’t need anyone to know about this move, just Julie and I. I didn’t care. Once I [am] at Final Tribal, that’s when I will unleash the news and it’ll be a shock to the jury. It’s in a game for a million dollars – I have to keep that a secret!” Despite Dee’s big reveal during Final Tribal Council, it appeared there was no bad blood between her and Austin at the after-show, although the two have decided to keep things “private” about where their relationship stands now. “Okay, you’re not going to like my answer, but we decided to keep it private for now,” she explained. “It’s a lot going on, and it’s going to be worse later too. Everything is happening all at once.”

Earning five Jury votes to Austin’s three might not have come as a surprise to the season winner, but she was shocked to receive a vote from Kaleb Gebrewold. “Kaleb’s actually surprised me because [he] and I, on the island, we had the little head bump and it had been such a while – he was the first member of the jury,” Dee explained. “It had been such a long time since I even felt like I connected with him. Everyone [voted out] after him, I played the game with them more, so I was able to think, ‘Okay, I have a feeling this person might vote for me.’ But Kaleb really surprised me. That really made me happy.”

Looking back on her win now, Dee admitted she’s “still in shock” as she reels from everything that happened this season. “Oh my god. I am in shock. I’m still in shock,” she gushed. “I’m so grateful, so, so grateful. But yeah, it’s very shocking, [I feel] a lot of gratitude, and just overall excited, of course.”