It's in the news today, but it was actually on TV Reload the podcast last Weekndline. Welcome TV Reload listeners. My name is Benjamin Norris and this is your podcast to get all the inside goss on the popular TV shows you may be watching from around the world. Undeniably, our TV sets are a major part of our home entertainment and very little is known about how our favorite
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On today's podcast, I have Sarah Marshki, who is our latest eliminated castaway on Australian Survivor Heroes Versus Villains. Sarah is known for her title role as Miss World Australia and while that made headlines on a global scale, it was the controversial accusation and that she pushed a competitor down a flight of stairs that had her competing as a villain in the current explosive series of Australian Survivor.
I always believe where there is smoke, there's usually fire, So we will find out the full story behind Miss Greece's claims that Sarah pushed her down the stairs. I will unpack George's rivalries and what he is truly like to live with twenty four hours a day. We will also discuss bullying, trolling and the way Sarah handles the
scrutiny of a public profile. Plus, we will break down the second week of Australian Survivor on Network ten, which will give you some exclusives on what actually went down during Sarah's makeup free time on the show. Anyway, let's bring Sarah Marshkin into the podcast and I hope you enjoyed this episode. Hi, Sarah, thanks for popping in to chat about Australian Survivor.
Thank you, thank you for having me.
We have to start by discussing why you were picked in the first place to do Australian Survivor, and you know what we're talking about right.
Yeah, so too the little goss. So I'm a beauty queen. For those who don't know, I was Miss World Australia for three years because of COVID and I had a bit of controversy while competing at Miss World. Miss Grease accused me of pushing her down a set of stairs. Now, this did not happen. I wasn't even there, and I have so many people replying to me on this season going as if she could say that, because obviously it didn't happen. But that's just the way it goes and
beauty pageants it's cutthroat. If you're in the lead or you're looking to win, someone's gonna stab you in the back.
He was greasing the wheels.
Yes, perfect, Yes, correct. So I was casting for Survivor as a villain, which I love. I mean, my whole life. Most of my life, I've had to be this good girl, someone who bites her tongue and says the right things and acts the proper way. So it was really refreshing to be able to say things and do things the way that I wanted. And I really played into that villain character and it made it so enjoyable.
To film, you know, the controversial accusation that I just want to go back to this because I tried to find something anywhere where anyone could ask you this question. And I kind of believe if something like this exists, there has to be some form of truth to it. There has to be something where had this person come up with to try and conjure such an outrageous thing. I mean, it has to be based on something. Had you prior to this had an argument like, I mean,
why did she target you? There has to be some truth.
It was quite bizarre because we were friends. So at Miss World, you're popped into these color groups by your country, and we were team color Yellow, and she was in my team, and I was actually elected to be the leader, so I had to be the leader of about twenty countries, twenty contestants, and I guess she saw that as a threat. Maybe she overheard me getting the phone call, Sarah, you're in tire ten. Can you come to this room for
a private interview? And maybe she didn't like that. But the way it actually happened was there's two buses too that takes you to different events, and she was on one bus. I was on the other bus. And this is what the security guards told me because I mentioned it to him and showed him the article and said, do you know anything about this? Because he's obviously he was related to the people that run this world. And he goes, well, she tripped down the stairs because I
was the one that caught her. And I was like, was I anywhere near her? I don't know if I remember. Was I behind her? And he goes, well, no, you're already off the buses inside already, And I was like, I thought I was on a different bus. And then she ended up spraining her ankle and they put her
in a wheelchair because she couldn't walk around. And it's just bizarre because there was one hundred and eleven countries and she picked Miss Australia, who was someone I did her hair for her, I helped her with her dress. And maybe she didn't like how nice I was and saw me as a threat because I was the leader and I was in charge of the group. Maybe she got offended with how bossy I was, maybe because I can be a bossy person, so maybe, but that's all
I know. And I did send her a message and say, look, you need to take this down. This is a complete lie, and no one's even asked for my opinion, and she completely ignored me, and I was like, I'll sue you, and then she still didn't reply and I just left it at there.
Wow. So you've never spoken to her again since this? No Christmas cards?
No Christmas cards? I mean I was boxing at one stage and my coach offered to fly her in so we could settle this, but that didn't end up happening. She didn't reply, so we haven't spoken probably about four to three years.
Okay, great, Okay. If this was The Housewives, the case of desist would have been sent by the stage. You know, you know what was the harshest things about Australian survivor, you know, as a beauty queen going into this environment and I can imagine it'd be quite stressful, But what was the harshest thing for you as princess?
As this may sound, probably not having my skin routine, deodor ant, being able to shower. That was really difficult for me. Not to mention the no food, the no sleep, having to have all these interviews when you're sleep deprived and you're starving, having to remain sane. It's really difficult. I mean Michael who got voted off, I know why he was crazy is because we haven't slept, we haven't eaten, we're not winning challenges, we're not even showering, and you're
just not yourself. So pretty much, I guess I'm saying all of it was difficult, and it was yeah, really really hard. But you know what, I came up with my little things. I was exfoliating my skin with mud and exfoliating with sand. So I found little things that made me feel comfortable and at home, and that's what helped me through it.
How do you think that you came across then on the show, because, I mean, you had some great alliances, you had some great friendships, and the experience sometimes can be different to what you see back on the show. But you know, how do you think you've come across now that you've watched it.
I thought that I had built all these wonderful alliances, and I thought I was close with everyone, but watching it back, I actually hadn't built any I mean I thought I was a part of the spice scales, spy Skirls were without me. I wasn't a part of that. I thought I was friends with Geordie and Simon's alliance. Turns out I'm not, as they voted me off. So it's so crazy being there and watching it back because you don't see those secret conversations and you don't see
those confessions. So that was really shocking for me, and I guess going in as a newbie, you don't quite understand the game as much as those returneys do.
I mean, for me, the biggest question I had was if you were still under the protection of George, would you still be in this competition, because as it played out, it looked like you kind of went over to Simon, you know, So do you think if you're under George's protection you'd still be in the show?
I think I could have worked with George. We are both very different people, and as much as I tried, and I tried, and I tried to be interested in a politics and his oh if I was president, but I just couldn't. We were just so so different. But maybe if I was still in his protection, Yes, But somewhere down the line, I reckon it would have backfired because a lot of people have George on the chopping board, and then once they chop him, they chop me.
Interestingly enough, George was talking a lot about politics. Everyone says that, but we haven't seen that at all. I mean, you've walked out of the show being like, I never want to hear your politics again. Hilarious, But we are saying that. Do you think that that's a fair representation for us to not see that of George? I mean, shouldn't we get to see all the dynamics of a person on a show like this.
I don't think it's actually important though, seeing him. Trust me, you don't want to hear it. You don't want to hear him talk about politics. I think what's important is seeing George's gameplay. I don't even think the politics really matter. And just for your ears, I'm glad that you didn't have to listen to it. But to know the real George, he loves to scheme and talk about politics.
You know. Also, you said to Simon in that little part where you're both together separately, and you said that George tried to strategize with you. What exactly had he been strategy? Like, well, how did that go down? Like? What strategies had he been trying to align with you?
His strategy was more so just saying, Sarah, I've got you. No matter what happens, I will keep you safe. And at the back of my mind, I'm like, no, you won't. You will not keep me safe. So I was pretending going, oh, thank you, George, thank you so much, knowing that I've already built this alliance that I thought I had with Simon and Jordie and all the boys. And that backfired because George is a lot smarter than we make him
out to be. He knew exactly what I was doing. Again, he is a politician, I guess, so he is very smart in and out of the game, and I definitely underestimated him, and that's what got me in trouble.
George said that the villains are following the loudest voice you know, which he says is Simon. Do you think that that's true? Do you think that Simon is the person who is commanding the villains tribe?
At the beginning, yes, but week one people were starting to figure out, look, this is a bit of the Simon show, and he can get really bossy when he doesn't get his way. So we started to see the real Simon. We thought he was just trying to help us out from the beginning, but then we kind of figured out, look, this is just about him and is a revenge on George, not about anyone else. So we sort of figured that out towards the end, and I was two and I was the swing vote because I
was in between. I thought I'd build on alliance with George and the girls, but also Simon and Jordan. I thought I was in a great place. So I was like, I'm in between here. No one even cares about me, but they knew exactly what I was up to, and that George figured me out completely.
You were kind of like in the Spice Girls, the same way that Posh Spicy is now, you know, not really, not.
Really, but slightly, I thought. So that was probably the most shocking, And when I saw it on TV, I was like, I'm not a Spice Girl, and I was so upset. But that's the way of the game. People manipulate and they make out that you are a part of it when you're not. So it's quite as much as it hurts, and there was a few tears. It's very interesting to see the way things work out.
What was what's made you cry? Like if you've been watching the show to make you cry.
Probably me getting voted out because I had no idea. I literally trusted Simon and Jordie and Sean and Liz. Those four I trusted with everything. But looking back on it, I was like, I totally get it. I totally get it. You didn't know because I was in between everyone, so I didn't. I wasn't fully committed to people. So I totally get it. So that's where the couple of she
has shed. And especially when I got told what I wasn't a part of the Spice Girls and it was George, Liz and Sean, and I was like, what about me? But totally get it.
I don't mean to laugh, but I mean it's funny, you know in a way, and you kind of have to laugh at these things. Oh, you can't really take it too seriously. It's easy to dip into it though and become emotional.
Yeah, if you don't laugh, you're just going to cry.
You know. What's interesting to me though, is that everyone's talking about George and Simon, and yes, they are powerful players. Isn't Seannie a really good strong or isn't she a strong contender as well?
I think everyone underestimates her because athletically. She is not a strong player. I mean we saw that in the throwing challenge. She doesn't know how to throw a ball and she doesn't know how to do I would say challenges that include balls, throwing balls, kicking balls, anything to do with that. So I think people really underestimate her, which is what can get her fart in the competition. And this is the thing. She plays such a sweet, innocent girl to everyone behind the scenes. I was in
utter shock. I was like, damn, she's sassy and she was saying all these things I didn't expect her to say. And yeah, she just has an amazing social game. I had no idea that her and Liz were so close, and she just kept it all on the down load. So it was really fascinating.
You didn't think, Wow, this woman. We've had eight seasons of Australian Survivor and she's been in half of them. Yeah, she's got to be being brought back for a reason exactly.
But you know what, she plays it so so well. It just goes over your head and you're like, Oh, she's not even here to win. She's just here to have fun, I guess, But no, she's there to win.
And at this point of the game, how much do the villains really know what's happening over the villains know about what's happening over the Hero's Tribe?
Absolutely nothing. We're not even we can't even talk at challenges unless we're in the middle of like wrestling each other. You're like, oh, how are you, Bud and that type of thing. But we don't get to have conversations with them, so we have no idea until we get to a challenge and they're like, oh, this person's been voted off, so we have no idea, just like they have no idea. What's happening with us?
Do you think any of the villains are going to make it to Merge? Oh?
Yeah, trust me, We us villains. We are there to play hard, and I think we are so good at manipulating, so so good. So I feel like, definitely there's going to be quite a lot of us making it through.
Should the villains be trusting Jerry though, I mean, who do you think he will actually play for after such a brutal exit. I mean, you saw the brutal exit from the Hero's Tribe and then send over to you guys, But I mean, who is who can trust Jerry?
Really at this point, I felt as though I could trust him while I was there. I totally get him voting me out, considering he's trying to survive. Totally get it. He's going with everyone's vote. I feel like he can be trustworthy because what the knowledge we had was he said, look, they've kicked me out. But I had a decision to come to you guys, So we thought, great, he's run to us like a headless shilk. He needs someone to care for him, and we're there with open arms to
accept him. And I felt like at the time that we could really.
Trust him, I'd be like dubious. I mean, I don't think he even knows. I mean, he's looking to me like he's shocked at how welcome everyone has been, So that's making him feel a little bit confused. You know, a lot of the things that I've been thinking about this season is about sexism in the Survivor game, because Survivor is a social experiment, and I wondered whether the dynamics of men versus women play into this game. I mean, how much of that affects the gameplay.
I do agree, I feel as though men drift to men women drift to women, and I don't know why. I think in the hero's tribe, watching back on it, the males, all four of them, I think it was I get it because they're all athletes of some type, so they bond over that. But you see, in the heroes tribe, we were all so so different, so we were able to bond over different things because we're getting to know each other. So I feel as though we
were lucky. But as for the heroes, I found that they found it quite challenging because they were bonding over things. Because Shanny, even Shanny and Jerry, I mean, she lost her grandfather, automatic bond. I get that. The boys, they're all ex athletes, all current athletes, and they're they're very fit, and they train a lot. They've bonded over that. I
think it can benefit them in the game. But at the end of the day, you're going to end up being voted out because I don't know how to explain this. It seems as though you can't be trusted because you haven't had the time to build those alliances with other people, so and you don't care about the other people, So that's what's going to get you in the game is you need to make sure you're making everyone trusted trusted? Sorry, what's I'm looking for.
The reason why I was asking that was I think it's very interesting and very telling that when you look at Survivor as a social experiment and then you look at the world today, we think that there's less of men versus women. But I thought it was interesting, like with Benjamin Law building that fake idol as a gay man, you know, people were like, oh, you know, don't trust him, don't trust him. You know, he's being mischievous. Had a straight male been able to make that idol, they would
have been like, yes, champion him. So it's really interesting to see the dynamics of how Survivor plays out and how telling it is about society and that men do stick with men and women do stick with women. So that was kind of the interesting thing. I mean, do you think that if Benjamin Law had made that idol, that fake idol as you know, one of those boys, do you think that he would have been applauded or do you think he would have been crucified.
It's so hard to know in today's society. Honestly, it's so hard to know where people's head's at. I feel like people just love to complain about absolutely anything. They're so bored with their lives and so they just want to complain about absolutely everything. I even feel like if I made that, I would be crucified and be like, oh, she's such a bimbo, Like why would she do that. I feel like everyone is constantly being crucified. I had no idea that Ben actually got all that backlash. I
had no idea. And this is the thing for me, I never actually pay attention to the news or the comments. That's the one thing I will never do. I will never search out my name because I don't want to see what's in the news articles. I only want to see the positive, and the positivity is my text messages and my calls from my family, and that's what's more important for me. So seriously, in today's age, people are going to complain about absolutely everything. No matter what you do,
it could be positive. You could be feeling yourself and post a bikini photo. It's twenty twenty three. People need to start accepting bodies, but there's people still commenting on that and it's not your right to do so. So I feel like people should just if it's not nice, then just don't say it, especially when it's not you. You don't have a right to comment on someone's appearance or their gender, or whether they're gay or they're straight.
It's not your place. Just move on with your life, focus on what you're doing.
It is really interesting, though, I mean, I was talking to Kyle Sanderlans last week and he was saying, isn't it fascinating that we all want to go and connect to the negative comments rather than the positive? Like if we only just read the positive comments, we'd think we're amazing. However, they get skimmed over and then we focus on the one or two things that's quite negative. It's an interesting conundrum.
It is, it is, And I know that he's been having actually a lot of backlash with I've been fascinating enough. I've been hearing on the radio the poor guy. They're just accusing him of being too soft, or he's too mean, or is this and he's that, And it's oddly getting to which is so strange because he seems so sure of himself. But when you get so much of it, I totally get it. It can be horrific being so young.
I mean, I was announced Miss Australia when I was only nineteen, and so imagine just graduating high school and the backlash. I don't think I received anything positive. I was called fat, ugly, I was told, in quotation marks you have saggy jugs. I was told everything about me, how imperfect or how disgusting I am. I'm never going to win. I'm this, I'm that, And it really affected me. But at the same time, I'm grateful that that happened at such a young age because now as I'm twenty three,
I'm growing up. I'm a young woman. Things don't affect me so much. I'm just so much stronger than what I used to be.
Well, what advice do you have for young girls then that are out there, that are on social media? Is there something that you learned, is there something specific? Was there a key to you being able to switch off?
So coming from a girl that's been brutally bullied through high school, I moved to Sydney and year in year eleven and year eleven and twelve, I was brutally bullied at school, at home, the messages, the fake profiles that were made of me, the comments. I actually had to move states because that's how brutal was. I was going to school, I was getting picked and pushed in a circle to get bashed, and they did it because I was different. I'm a country girl. I mean, I come
from Bunderberg and I came to the big Smoke. I'm a bit more twangy in country than others. I'm nice and sweet, I would say, and they just they didn't like it, and they thought it was different and wrong. I got water bombed, I got my phone stolen, my food was stolen from me. So someone that's been so brutally bullied, I will say, do not. You cannot let it affect you. You can let it affect you maybe for that first week because you're allowed to feel those
feelings and those emotions. But then you need to rise up from it and you need to think, sir, there is absolutely nothing wrong with me, only those people and something that's really special for me. My mum always told me, if someone is mean to you, it's because they're going through something. It has nothing to do with you and what you have done. And throughout my whole life, honestly, that's all I think about when someone would say anything rude or punch me. I would just pause and be like,
are you okay? Why are you acting like this? Like what's happening here? So that's the way I view things is it's literally not me. It's those people who may feel alone, they're going through something at home, or they're struggling with mental health, that are the ones bullying you. So I've twisted it around and I have an understanding now. So I feel as though, just you can't let it affect you because it's not you. You're totally perfect the
way you are. It's just those people. They're obviously dealing with something.
Normally ask for like a behind the scenes secret, but we're not doing that because we don't want to sort of peel the onion with survival. We want to keep those secrets intact. But I've been asking everyone who is your pick to win? Because not who you might know, because you might know different things, but who do you think when you walked out the tribal council did you think was going to win?
So I after you get kicked out, they actually ask you this question. They're like, oh, who do you think is going to win? I voted for phrase and the reason I voted for him when leaving is because he is friends with absolutely everyone. Here's the sweetest guy. He's not seen as a threat because he's not the strongest, and I think that's something where I got into trouble
with I was winning my one to one challenges. I mean, I've been an athlete my whole life, so I can get where they see me as someone who may beat them in the future with challenges. So phrase I thought, because he just has a good social game, he's so so sweet, and he's just sort of trotten around and no one really worries about him. So that's actually something I said to Channel ten when they said, who do you think's going to win? So it's going to be
interesting to see. I just hope that it's a villain.
And also, if you came back to the show, what theme do you think would suit you best? What's a theme that they could bring you back for.
I would love anything to do with beauty, even like queens versus kings or royalty versus something. I would absolutely love that. I'm just imagining the chats that would be going on. We would all be crying about how much we miss our makeup and our style lists and brushing our teeth and getting our facials, or even just how we survive in the wild would be hilarious, seeing what we do with like leaves and water and how we're exfoliating.
So I think that would be really interesting. If I go back something about royalty or queen's or princesses, something like that, I think that would be really entertaining.
I think the ratings would go up. Oh yeah, all those really hot women all wrestling together.
I mean, seriously, kikini's running on the beach. Oh gosh, I've been a bit of sexualizing there, but I'm sure the ratings would just go up.
I just want to say how amazing this has been to chat with you, so well spoken, as they mentioned on the show. But yeah, you've been fantastic and good luck with everything up for the show.
It's my absolute pleasure. Nice to meet you.