‘Survivor’: Natalie Reveals Why She Refused To Give Angelina Her Jacket After Being Voted Out
After her ‘Survivor’ elimination, Natalie spoke to HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY about why she refused to give Angelina her jacket, even though she was the only one who didn’t vote for her. Plus, much more!
All Angelina Keeley wanted on the Oct. 24 episode of Survivor: David vs. Goliath was a jacket to keep her warm. So, when Natalie Cole was voted out and Angelina didn’t vote for her, she asked her for her coat…and received dead silence in return. “Angelina was the driving force [behind me being voted out],” Natalie told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY, of her decision not to give up the jacket. “Mike [White] made no decisions the entire game. Angelina was controlling him. So when she had had the audacity to ask for the jacket, I was screaming internally…DON’T SAY ANYTHING. DON’T TALK. Because it’s not going to come out nice.”
Natalie added that she’s “fully confident” that Angelina purposely got Mike to vote with Nick [Wilson] and Lyrsa [Torres-Velez] against Natalie so she wouldn’t have to, giving her an excuse to ask for the jacket. “Angelina made the call,” Natalie said, confidently. “So there was no way I’m leaving her my jacket.” Even before tribal council, though, Natalie said she had a good feeling she was going home, and it all stemmed from her never being able to “fully trust” Angelina.
“Angelina had separate conversations with Lyrsa. Nick and Lyrsa completely started avoiding me and having conversations just the two of them,” Natalie revealed, of the vibe before tribal council. “And I had already seen Nick and Mike having a sidebar. I also knew that Angelina and Mike told Nick and Lyrsa about what happened with me at Goliath. I was never going to win Mike over because he was bonded so closely with Jeremy [Crawford], and I believe knew it was my strategy that took Jeremy out.”
On why she had so many issues with Jeremy: Jeremy literally made me fall in the first challenge by grabbing my leg and attempting to throw it over a bar. He flung it forward and I fell and got trampled. It was a tough game. Then, he was in my face back at camp. Everyone’s saying I’m confrontational and I’m argumentative, but it was never me initiating an argument with Jeremy. I was always defending myself. I felt like an abused woman out there. I became isolated and ostracized. It was a tough, uphill battle.
Were you aware of how other people felt about you? I believe I was suffering as a victim of Jeremy and Natalia [Azoqa]. They became obsessed with me. Their full strategy was just…get Natalie. It was one dimensional at best. I tried to get Natalia to come around and understand that I was willing to work with her and I felt like she had overreacted. I approached her a couple of times, but she wouldn’t go for it. So since Natalia was so vocal and Jeremy was telling me from day one that he wasn’t with me, my entire game was fighting against them.
Do you think it was a fair portrayal of you? Absolutely not. That’s a character on a reality TV show. So, me talking to you today – can I effectively in a singular voice work against that narrative? No. People are still going to say I’m delusional. But I’m clear about what happened to me. I DO have self-awareness.
Anything you think you could have done differently? You know what, I didn’t lose. Because when I don’t win in the way that I think that I should have, I still won because I was out there doing something that I dreamt about for 18 years. It was a hell of an experience being out there, witnessing the miracles of nature. All of this put me in a spiritual state that gave me the mental fortitude to go through that. So I didn’t lose.