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Survivor 49’s Kristina Mills says her kids, “keep reminding her that she didn’t win…”

In a new interview, the Survivor 49 finalist shares a deeper look into her Survivor journey and what it’s been like since she left the island.
“The Devil’s Shoes” – A major shakeup hits the game when two tribes turn to three. New tribe members size each other up, but with only four players on each tribe, there is not much room to hide. Then, heat and exhaustion take a major toll on one castaway, on SURVIVOR, Wednesday, Oct. 29. Pictured (L-R): Kristina Mills. Photo: Robert Voets/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
“The Devil’s Shoes” – A major shakeup hits the game when two tribes turn to three. New tribe members size each other up, but with only four players on each tribe, there is not much room to hide. Then, heat and exhaustion take a major toll on one castaway, on SURVIVOR, Wednesday, Oct. 29. Pictured (L-R): Kristina Mills. Photo: Robert Voets/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Fans remember the emotional moment inSurvivor 49when Kristina Mills broke down while speaking to hostJeff Probstahead of a reward challenge. It immediately reminded fans that even though it’s a game, these players are isolated and away from their real lives that we don’t know. Everything they might have already been dealing with before they arrived on the island only increases tenfold when there’s no one you can truly trust besides yourself.

In a game likeSurvivor, we’ve seen that even the tiniest personal nugget of information can change how players view their fellow castaways—even resulting in many eliminations over the years. But seeing Kristina open up and release everything she was holding in, made fans feel more connected to her. And she continued to play powerfully, until she was voted out at the Final Five.

But now it’s been over a year since Kristina returned home to her family and as she sits down withNews on 6, she shares whatSurvivortaught her about living life.

“I found this sense of self and learned to stick up for myself. I found who I was.” Kristina reveals about her experience while stranded on an island in Fiji. “I literally felt like I had this dark cloud over me for five years, and to just finally feel free made the entire experience worth it.”

As we saw at the beginning of the season, Kristina was one of the most odd-man-out players. She hated the outdoors, she hated camping, yet she had the attitude of the best camp counselor who you want to spend the most time with. Her vivacious energy did a great job of hiding the suffering she was going through after losing her mom.

The Die Is Cast
“The Die Is Cast” – With the biggest reward of the season on the line, one member of a newly established alliance hopes to earn the extra sustenance to propel themselves further in the game. Castaways’ advantages come into focus as the days left in the game dwindle. Then, one alliance member must decide if they should flip against one of their own at a jaw-dropping tribal council, on SURVIVOR, Wednesday, Dec. 10 Jeff Probst serves as host and executive producer. Pictured L to R: Savannah Louie,

“I wanted to do something in my mom’s memory,” the Oklahoma native tells Leanne Taylor on Tulsa’s most-watched news station. “She passed from a fentanyl overdose, and I just wanted to kind of reclaim my life.”

And anyone who watched the season knows she did just that. Except maybe her kids… “They don’t care that I’ve been onSurvivor,” Kristina laughs about her kids’ reaction after she returned home. “They think it’s something cool, but they keep reminding me that I didn’t win.”

And just like the rest of us, Kristina is super excited for a new season—the first in the “open era”—to start. “This is something completely new, so I really want to see how they take the new things that are being thrown at them and how they’re going to face it…”

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