After informing her No.
But how does Shan feel now?
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The edit made it look like Ricard masterminded your ouster.
Shantel Smith on ‘Survivor 41’.Robert Voets/CBS
Was that the case, and if so, did that surprise you?
SHANTEL SMITH: Yeah.
I mean, it was completely Ricard.
The Ua tribe on ‘Survivor 41’.Robert Voets/CBS
So, I was not surprised.
But Ricard knew that he needed an extra vote, and he knew where to go get that vote.
So, yeah, he was smart enough to see the cracks in the all-Black alliance.
Shantel Smith competes on the third episode of ‘Survivor 41.'.Robert Voets/CBS
And so, yeah, I’m not surprised at all.
Not surprised at all.
When did you want to cut the cord on that partnership?
Shantel ‘Shan’ Smith on ‘Survivor 41’.Robert Voets/CBS
We saw that with the Tiffany vote.
I wanted to vote out Heather.
Well, Deshawn wanted to protect Heather.
And then again with Naseer.
I didn’t want to get out Naseer.
Let’s just work together."
And so, that was what it was.
And yeah, I mean, I loved him so much.
I had such deep, deep, profound love for Ricard, and still do.
You see me on screen weeping, telling him, “Not yet.”
I’ve been with this person since day one.
We had so many conversations at night, in the morning.
He was my gay husband, for lack of better words.
And I just wanted to keep him for as long as I could.
So, he was smart to make the move when he did.
You kept Genie, instead of Ricard.
He’s too good.
He’s going to take her out.
Don’t keep him."
The only vote I did regret, obviously, was the Genie vote-out, just because I love Genie.
That’s my homegirl.
She’ll be my homegirl.
She’ll probably be in my wedding.
I love her to death.
She’s one of my favorites.
And you didn’t get to see a lot of Genie, but she’s just an incredible girl.
And I feel like everyone in the merge would’ve fallen in love with her.
The problem with Genie was that Genie was honest to a fault.
She’s like, “I’m voting for you, Sara.
Me and Shan are going to vote for you, and just play your shot in the dark.”
And I was like, “Genie, what are you doing?
you’ve got the option to’t do that inSurvivor.”
And so, I was like, Ricard is definitely the Judas here a little bit.
My dad says I love way too hard, and I think I did.
And I wanted to work with Ricard.
We could be very honest with each other and still move together.
That was the thing about us.
We could criticize each other.
We could bitch at one another.
And that’s the only move I think I regret in the game, was being afraid.
And I never want to move in fear.
It was that moment of, “Do you want to go the prom with me?”
And yeah, it was a horror movie.
I could see how people feel that way.
And we heard not just Deshawn say that but Ricard as well.
Do you feel that was an accurate portrayal or not?
So I know that I’m capable of listening.
I didn’t really have that issue with Liana.
I didn’t have that issue with Genie, or Brad, or anybody else.
Ricard didn’t want to do Heather.
He wanted to do Naseer, and we talked about it like we always do.
We fought about it like we always do, and I voted with him.
You know what I mean?
The same thing with Deshawn.
Deshawn threw a whole tantrum at Tribal.
I’ll do whatever you want to do," And it goes their way.
I’ve never seen that.
And I didn’t.
I voted with him.
So, I mean, it’s like, I get what the edit was showing there.
And I also want to be in the game, and I also want to have fun playingSurvivor.
And so then me and Danny and Liana would go at it and strategize.
But I do think that I’m a good listener.
You called Deshawn a snake on your way out.
This is what we do.
And at that moment, I was completely locked into the mission, to the all-Black alliance.
They don’t have to think about the world in this way.
So, we never got the verdict.
So, I was high on that.
And in my personal life, I’m an activist.
I was leading the protest in Pasadena.
I was leading the protest in L.A; for Breonna Taylor, for Ahmaud Arbery, for George Floyd.
Didn’t give me a heads up.
And people had told me that Deshawn was throwing my name out all over the place.
I’m hearing this fromTiff.
I’m hearing this from Xander.
I’m hearing this from everybody else."
It wasn’t until I heard from Liana, who was in the alliance, that everything shifted.
How are you two now post-game?
Have you had a chance to talk this out a little bit?
I think it’s always going to be hard.
But I love him, and I will defend him and go to bat for him.
And he’s my brother, and we are all going to grow and learn from this.
But it was a hard moment for us, but I think we’re working through it.
And I love that boy.
Why so focused on Heather?
Why was Heather this huge person that has to be taken out?
My focus with Heather was that it wasn’t about Heather, because Heather has no game.
But the thing with Heather is that she was crucial to Erika’s game.
And I kept telling people that I think we should take out Erika.
So, my thinking there was, I think Heather just needs to go.
I just got an icky feeling from her.
I just don’t.
I don’t think it’s good gameplay, but it is what it is.
I know with MS, you don’t really know when it’s going to flare up.
Was that an issue for you at all out there or not?
I don’t know if it was electromagnetic.
I don’t know, but I felt like I healed in a lot of ways.
And I feel like I healed a lot when I was out there, surprisingly.
My body just really, really healed.
I mean, I’ve done eight rounds of chemo Lemtrada.
And that, for me, has been a big, pivotal moment for me in coming back home.
And people would think, “There’s so much stress out there.
You’re going to flare up,” but there was so much stress back here in America.
I’m more bound to have a flare up here than in Fiji!
But my body did really, really well.
And I feel so proud as someone with MS, to represent for that community in some way.
Sometimes you feel like the diagnosis is the end of your life, and it’s just not.
It was an incredible opportunity, incredible dream experience.
And so, yeah, I didn’t get sick.
I think I probably healed.
The only problem I had was I couldn’t go to the bathroom, and that’s another thing.
Anyways, I’m giving too much away, but I’ll just stop there.
I told Liana, “Let’s not flip on the all-Black alliance.
Let’s just stay together.
Let’s all vote Erika.”
And so, we all agreed at that moment that’s what we were going to do.
And then I was with the medics for the rest of the day.
I was, I hadn’t used… okay, Dalton…
I hadn’t used the bathroom.
So, I was at the medics all afternoon and just could not go.
And they were concerned about it.
Listen, I was just recovering from what took place with the medics.
I was not even thinking about an idol that moment.
I was like, “Man, I just had to go to the bathroom!”
So, seeing the edit, they were very gracious towards me.
And yeah, production definitely gave me a lot of screen time this season.
I did not expect that.
It was an up and down experience, for sure, seeing myself on TV that much.
But that last episode, I’ve never seen anything like it.
I felt like I wasn’t watching myself.
I’m like, “Who is this person that’s this fallen slain hero?
Et tu, Brutus?”
Will you play again if they ask you?
It’s too soon.
I mean, maybe, I don’t know.
No, I’m just joking.
That’s your first mistake.
My first mistake already.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
