Survivor fans saw Brooke in tears in the latest episode of Australian Survivor: Redemption. Host David Genat got Brooke emotional by mentioning that the other tribe had enjoyed a “taste of home”, receiving coffee cups featuring family photos.
For Brooke, whose daughter Parker with fiancé Chris Cavanagh was born in 2023, it was a tough decision when she was asked if she would return to Samoa to play Survivor a third time.
“As soon as I got the call I came home to my partner and just started bawling my eyes out, because I was like, ‘I want to go but I can’t,’” she tells TV WEEK. “And he was like, ‘We’ll make it work. If this is what you want to do, we’ll find a way.’
“It was definitely a huge risk and a huge sacrifice in going, but I’m so glad I did.”
Before she went to Samoa, Brooke felt sure she was good at “compartmentalising”, and thought she would be able really focus on the game.
“But that was very far from what it was like,” she adds. “I struggled so much mentally without her there, and it was really rough.”
She says it was hard feeling emotional when there were so many people and cameras around.
“I’d just go for a walk on the beach and just start crying in the water,” she remembers. “It was really hard but I also used that emotion to push me harder and to take me out of that safe zone that I usually play in.”
Brooke’s fiancé Chris knows a bit about reality TV. He competed on the fourth season of My Kitchen Rules back in 2013 with his cousin Sam Newton. Brooke met Chris when she was appearing on Survivor: All Stars and he invited her to his café to help promote it.
“I really liked him,” she remembers. “I thought he was married so I didn’t action anything and found out he was single a little while later and then we were on!”
But she didn’t know about his reality TV history until they were well into a relationship.
“Down the track, when we were properly dating, he was like, ‘Oh, I was actually on My Kitchen Rules.’ But I haven’t even watched his season. I don’t know what to expect, so I’d rather steer clear!”
Survivor fans will remember that Brooke formed a very close bond with Locky Gilbert on All Stars. Brooke thought she and Locky would meet up again after the show, and was blindsided by the announcement that he was going to be the new Bachelor.
Looking back, six years down the track, Brooke says she doesn’t think relationships that form on shows like Survivor generally work out well.
“You can get a little bit blinded out there. The grass sometimes looks greener and everyone has rose-coloured glasses on. But in reality, it’s not a great place to find someone.”
Not that Brooke is looking.
“I’m very happily engaged. I’ve got my beautiful family. I had no distractions this time. I was head in the game, there to win. Nothing else.”
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