Australian Survivor's Moana on what we didn't see on TV: "I received no medical attention."

Last night, I almost cried when Moana Hope was eliminated from Australian Survivor Champions vs. Contenders.

There were no actual tears, but my eyes were definitely misty.

The 30-year-old AFLW player quickly won over Aussie households (mine included) because of her honesty, humour and authenticity. Even though she played hard from day one, Moana somehow made lying and scheming endearing, probably because she’s a team player above all else.

But after finding out just how sick Moana actually was while filming Australian Survivor, I can now understand why she had to leave the game.

“I was sick for eight days, which you didn’t really see on TV, the champions tribe had to see me sit there in torture. I lost seven kilos in five days and was fainting out on the island, I was quite literally deteriorating,” she told Mamamia.

“The rules of Survivor are, what you see [on TV] is all we get. I probably would’ve given my left toe for medical attention or something that would make it better. My heart didn’t want to leave, I was so in love and having the best time, it was the coolest thing I’ve ever done, but I couldn’t eat or drink, and by the time you saw me at tribal council [last night], that was me after eight days, nine kilos lighter. I looked like it was day 45.”

“It was so hard to prepare and say goodbye to Vinny because she didn’t understand. The night before we were laying in bed watching TV and she started crying and gritting her teeth really hard – she doesn’t deal with things the same way you and I deal with things, so to watch her quite literally in front of me, what I would call depressed, was hard,” she said.

“But when I got home (it was a surprise), she couldn’t believe it. She even swore a couple of times, she looked at me as if it was fake or somebody else dressed as me. I think it might’ve been the best day of her life… seeing her face, that was, I don’t know how to explain it, it felt like a weight taken off my shoulders.”

There were also so many moments that didn’t get shown, but the funniest was when Moana got former AFL footballer Brian Lake back for flipping on her during the Russel Hantz vote.

“In week one, Brian was supposed to vote for Russel as a part of my alliance, but he flipped on me so I knew I wanted to get him back. So the day I was leaving, I pulled him aside and showed him my old idol clue [that helped Moana find a hidden immunity idol]. I told him there would be an idol at tribal council and that I wanted him to have it.

“He was so happy as if someone had just given him a billion dollars, but it was payback because he lied to me. So at tribal council, he went and looked under the lid of the urn [where Moana found the idol days before]. When he sat back down, he whispered to me ‘it’s not there, where is it?! someone else must’ve found it first’. It was absolute gold.”

Well played, Moana. It was an absolute pleasure watching you, right until the end.

Are you watching Survivor? Who do you think will win now that Moana was eliminated?