Even though Ricard Foyé, 31, found himself on a losing tribe at the beginning of season 41 of Survivor, he’s emerged as a major threat to win the entire game. Ricard is the only remaining member of the original Ua tribe following his recent blindside of Shan Smith, who was his biggest ally since day one. During the show’s Nov. 24 episode, Shan told Ricard that other members of the merged tribe wanted to vote him out. So, when he won immunity, he took matters into his own hands.
Ricard and Shan both knew that one of them would have to blindside the other at some point — they were each too strong individually to take each other to the final tribal council. However, while Shan wasn’t ready to make the move just yet, Ricard saw the opportunity presented in front of him and went for it. He teamed up with Xander Hastings, Erika Casupanan and Heather Aldret to form a new alliance. They convinced Shan’s allies, Deshawn Radden and Danny McCray, that it was time to vote Shan off, and the plan went into play.
After making such a bold move, though, Ricard has emerged as a major threat. During the Dec. 1 episode, Xander, Erika and Heather decided to keep him around and vote off Liana Wallace instead so they would have majority numbers going into the final six. However, Ricard’s name has definitely been tossed around, even by members of his own alliance, so his fate is uncertain heading into this week’s episode. Learn more about Ricard below.
1. Who Is Ricard Married To?
Ricard is married to Andy Grier Foyé, who is a transgender man. Together, they have two children: Aurelia and Lucia, who Andy gave birth to. Both Ricard and Andy often share photos with each other and with their kids on social media. It’s unclear when Andy and Ricard got married, but Ricard has been referring to Andy as his “husband” on social media since at least 2016.
In his Survivor bio, Ricard says that Andy is his hero. “He has navigated through life after many setbacks, struggles and the tragic loss of a parent in a car accident,” Ricard explained. “Andy focused on putting his physical comfort behind his and my desire for our family to grow and carried our children as a transgender man. I cannot think of a better human.”
2. Is Ricard Deaf?
Ricard revealed on this season of Survivor that he is deaf in one ear. “I focus heavily on reading lips and am fluent in American Sign Language,” he revealed in his CBS bio. Ricard did not share this information with the rest of the Survivor cast until they had been playing the game for several days.
Despite being hard of hearing, though, Ricard likes to push himself to do things like dance and play violin. “I really want to do things that take me out of my comfort zone,” he told Parade. Wanting to push himself further out of that comfort zone is part of the reason that Ricard decided to sign up for Survivor.
3. What Does Ricard Do?
Ricard works as a flight attendant and lives in the state of Washington. Ricard has said that his career as a flight attendant helped prepare him for being on Survivor. “Being able to be kind to people that are absolutely awful to me [helps],” he admitted. “Being able to read lips on board the airplane when I really can’t hear what most people are saying to me, and being able to read lips on the island when people are chit-chatting in the bushes and trying to pull a fast one on me. The fact then when I get on-board an airplane, every single flight that I go on, I’ve never met these people before. I really think that’s going to transfer over into this game with all these different people.”
4. Ricard Has Done Some Acting & Modeling
In 2014, Ricard starred in the short film, Abandoned, and was in one episode of the television series The Librarians. He also played an extra in a 2015 episode of Grimm, and played harmonica in a video for X Ambassadors. In 2020, he played an uncredited extra in an episode of Station 19, as well. Ricard has done work as a model, too, starring in commercial work, print campaigns and other ads.
5. What Nationality Is Ricard?
Ricard is from a Puerto Rican family. In his Parade interview, he opened up about his background and how it connects to his experience on Survivor. “I come from an all-white passing family, for the most part,” Ricard explained. “I’m the one dark brown one in the mix. So I didn’t understand my race, really. I just kne I looked different. And my mom was watching Survivor (the first season), and I see all these brown people. They actually weren’t brown people, they were just in the sun for a long time. But I was like, ‘Oh my God, they look like me! What is this?’ So I sat down and I started watching it.”