Ex-Las Vegan surviving fame

Kimberley McGee

Thursday, Aug. 31, 2000 | 11:20 a.m.

Editor's note: This is the first extensive interview of Kelly Wiglesworth by Las Vegas media since the season finale of "Survivor" aired on Aug. 23.

After 39 days of surviving the elements and her fellow castaways, Kelly Wiglesworth is battling something else.

Fame.

"It's been hectic," the former Las Vegan said during a phone conversation from her third hotel room in six days (this one in Los Angeles) on Wednesday morning. "I'm exhausted, but I'm OK."

In fact Wiglesworth is $100,000 worth of OK, and companies such as Pontiac are lining up to sign the runner-up of the megahit CBS prime-time reality show, "Survivor."

The season finale aired last week to an audience of more 50 million viewers, according to the Nielsen ratings, making it the second-most watched program of the year, trailing only the Super Bowl.

The season-ending show revealed corporate trainer Richard Hatch to be the $1 million winner of the 39-day ordeal in which 16 people were stranded on Pulau Tiga, an island in the South China Sea. Finishing second was Wiglesworth, who attended Chapparal High School, UNLV and listed Las Vegas as her hometown.

The object of the popular show was to be the last remaining of 16 original competitors on the deserted island. The 23-year-old Wiglesworth, a river guide who now resides in Kernville, Calif., said she didn't know what to expect when she signed up for the show.

Wiglesworth, who lived in Las Vegas for 13 years, said the show turned out to be one of the hardest ordeals of her life.

"It was a different, challenging thing I wanted to see if I could do," Wiglesworth said. "I wanted to push myself and see how far I'd get."

Wiglesworth's journey began in January after her mother, Susan Smart, saw an ad seeking contestants for the CBS show and encouraged her adventurous daughter to submit a videotaped audition for the show. In the tape, submitted just before CBS' deadline, Wiglesworth is cooking a pasta dinner and explaining why she should be a "Survivor" cast member.

Looking back on her decision, Wiglesworth said, "I'm not going to make a jackass of myself. If they want to pick me, they are going to pick me. I'm not going to jump through hoops for this."

Not then anyway. But she later balanced on a plank for hours, dove through the jungle with a camera around her neck, answered trivia questions and covered herself in mud to win immunity challenges to stay on the island.

From the show's first episode, 72-year-old retired Navy SEAL Rudy Boesch, 37-year-old truck driver Susan Hawk and the 39-year-old Hatch formed an alliance with Wiglesworth that strong-armed members into voting nonalliance castaways off the island.

"The four of us got along pretty well, we worked pretty hard -- Rich was fishing, and Sue and I were taking care of camp and Rudy. (He) didn't do a whole hell of a lot, but he cooked every meal," Wiglesworth said.

But the alliance would later try to oust Wiglesworth.

"I knew they wanted me off," Wiglesworth said, having been accused of back-stabbing her alliance teammates.

Hawk was particularly upset and told Wiglesworth that she was not going to let her win. That pushed Wiglesworth and Hawk into a bitter competition.

"It wasn't the money," Wiglesworth said. "It never was. I wanted to see how far I could go. I wanted to be there for 39 days, and I was. I was pushing myself to see how much I could take, and how far I could go." In the show's finale, Hawk berated Wiglesworth in front of the cameras as their contentious relationship came to a head. But since leaving the island, Hawk has written Wiglesworth a letter of apology and has apologized frequently when the two have been together for media appearances.

"That doesn't change the past, but we are off the island and the game is over," Wiglesworth said. "I'm not going to hold a grudge forever, and I'm obviously going to run into her again."

Wiglesworth did find a friend in 30-year-old youth basketball league coach Gervase Peterson.

"We would go to the fire at the same time every night and sit there and talk and think," she said. "We were just talking and hanging out, winding down. It was really cool. We both would end up there -- same time, same place every night."

All of which was played out in front of always-present TV cameras, which Wiglesworth said became easy to ignore.

"As time goes by, you can't hold back anymore. The camera's are there, but you are going to say what you have to say and do the things you need to do whether they are watching or not," Wiglesworth said. "It was their first time, too. So we made it up as we went along."

But they did step in when Wiglesworth and Colleen hatched a plan to steal a prize from 30-year-old neurologist Sean Kinneff -- a night on a luxury boat anchored just off the shore.

"We had bathing suits on, and we were going to paddle out there and take over the ship," she said, laughing. "We thought it'd be hilarious, but they said 'Nope, can't let you do it.' "

Wiglesworth said she struggled with her conscience during a long immunity challenge toward the end of the island stay. She and 23-year-old college student Colleen Haskell were the only two left balancing on a narrow beam 20 feet from the shore.

"I knew I was going to get (voted) off if Colleen stayed on (the board)," Wiglesworth said. "I almost jumped off and gave her the (immunity) idol so she wouldn't get kicked off, but in the back of my head, I knew I was playing the game."

At that point Wiglesworth's determination to win was sealed. She didn't budge during the last immunity challenge when the host, Jeff Probst, tempted the hungry remaining survivors -- Boesch, Wiglesworth and Hatch -- with fruit, if they gave up the game.

"I've been starving for over a month now, and you are going to phase me with an orange?" Wiglesworth said. "Please, bring me a pizza, and I'll think about it."

Hatch told the group he was homosexual early on in the show and later revealed even more as he frequently shed his clothes and conducted his daily business in the nude.

"I didn't care, somebody has to be the naked person," Wiglesworth said. "It was funny."

The first 20 days flew by, Wiglesworth said, but the last few weeks were a struggle to survive as food, energy and morale ran low. The cast was seen lying in hammocks during many of the humid days.

"You just sit there and don't do anything and time creeps by," Wiglesworth said. "My brain was fried on people, plus you don't have any food for so long you literally hallucinate."

When she came home, she was a changed person.

"Mentally I was real withdrawn, antisocial and tired of being around people -- people I didn't really know or trust," she said. "I was pretty antisocial for the summer."

But Wiglesworth said she respects the other survivors.

"It's all cool. The games over, and we are off the island," Wiglesworth said.

During her island stay, Wiglesworth's past came to light, and her brushes with the law surfaced. In July of 1997 Wiglesworth was charged with domestic abuse against her husband, Rene Esteves, and in 1994 a warrant was issued for her in North Carolina involving a credit-card forgery.

"It's a stupid situation," said Wiglesworth, who was angered by reports of her past while the show was airing. "It's not important in my life."

Although Wiglesworth said she learned a lot about herself and enjoyed the experience, but wouldn't recommend it to a friend.

"It's a mean-spirited thing," she said. "It was hard, and I suffered mentally and physically. I wouldn't want someone I really care about to go through that."

Wiglesworth plans to reap the rewards and stretch her 15 minutes of fame as long as possible. She's done a Got Milk? ad campaign, hosted the comedy show "Talk Soup," made a publicity appearance in Las Vegas and has spoken with Pontiac about a commercial deal.

Other deals are on the table. There's even talk of an acting career, Wiglesworth said, but she's keeping mum, saying only, "I don't know what I want to do until it comes my way, and I grab it."

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