EXCLUSIVE: Survivor Blood V Water star Nina reveals the real reason she turned on her mother Sandra Diaz-Twine

Is blood thicker than water? Not for Australian Survivor competitor Nina.

After a tribe swap saw her and her mum, Survivor US royalty Sandra Diaz-Twine, land up in the same tribe, Nina decided to play the ultimate game by voting her out.

While it was a tough decision for the 24-year-old, she suspected if she didn’t, she’d be the next to be voted out.

“I was sitting in Tribal [Council] thinking, ‘Holy crap – what do I do?'” Nina tells TV WEEK.

Her options were to vote for her mum, showing her tribe she was truly with them, or she could vote for someone else and face the music back in camp.

“Rather than showing my cards, I voted for my mum, just like everybody else did, so I could come back with a clean slate,” Nina says.

“I don’t have to explain nothing to nobody – if anything, they have to explain to me.”

As host Jonathan LaPaglia read out Sandra’s name, Nina was nervous.

“I was absolutely worried about her reaction,” she says.

“Fight or flight, my mum fights. I don’t always agree with the way she does it – she can be very intense – so I was just thinking, ‘Please don’t burn any bridges for me.’

“I didn’t want her to ruin these relationships I’d taken so long to build.

“Honestly, I genuinely felt like a weight came off my shoulders and I think most people will be able to see that.”

From the get-go, Nina was clear she wanted to play her own game, whereas Sandra, full of pride for her daughter, thought of them as a dynamic duo.

“We all know parents,” Nina says.

“No matter how many times they say, ‘You’re your own person’, they still have the need to tell you things, especially when they have experienced it.”

But would Sandra have voted for Nina if the roles were reversed?

“She swears no, and I believe her – unless I knew it was coming and told her to vote for me,” Nina says.

“In her game, she’ll play her cards and nobody will care. In mine, I keep them close to my chest.”