Russell Hantz is one of Survivor‘s most infamous villains. But his success on the CBS reality series may have cost him his marriage.
In an interview with Australian magazine Who, the 45-year-old oil company owner who made his name as the runner-up on Survivor: Samoa in 2009 and the second runner-up on Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, opened up about the effect his show persona had on his personal life.
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He admitted that her on-screen cheating and lying made its way into her life off of the show, especially when it came to his ex-wife Melanie and their four kids.
“I stayed that person for years after and that is just not a good person in real life,” he said. “I didn’t go round lying, cheating and stealing, but I went around partying and everything else, so it’s just not a positive thing.”
Hantz said it even eventually led to the end of his marriage.
“I went home and pretty much ignored everything, including my relationship with my wife,” he said. “I lost my marriage.”
Hantz recently returned to the Survivor franchise in a season of Australian Survivor, but he ended up being the second person to go home.
He told Who prior to his elimination that he wasn’t leaving behind his villain days for good, and that he would be getting “in character” for the game.
But he also wanted to “prove to my kids that I can still be Dad after all that,” he added.
Despite the negative way things ended between Hantz and his ex, the reality personality said the two “get along great” following their 2014 divorce.
“I called her up before I came here,” he said. “She said that she’d pray for me.”
He’s not the only player from Survivor to have trouble following their time on the show.
A year after competing on Survivor: Blood vs. Water, player Caleb Bankston died suddenly at the age of 26 after falling off of a freight train and onto the railroad tracks.
And in 2016, Survivor Winner Adam Klein’s mom passed away just two hours after he returned home a victor after a prolonged battle with lung cancer.
Photo Credit: Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty Images
