Outlast: The Jungle’s winners, Nikki and Maddy, justify booting Leiya off the team in the final
'There was never any greed or selfishness in it'
In the grand final of Outlast: The Jungle, Nikki Hru and Maddy Jones chose to kick their campmate Leiya Pillitteri off Team Alpha. This decision worked out great for Nikki and Maddy, as they went on to win the whole contest. Things weren’t so positive for Leiya, who then missed out on a share of the $1 million dollar prize pot. Nikki and Maddy have now talked through their thought processes during the final of Outlast, and shed some light on why they really chose to dispose of Leiya.
According to Nikki, she wasn’t motivated by mistrust of Leiya, but by her loyalty to Maddy. Remember, Nikki and Maddy had both been in Camp Alpha since day one, while Leiya only joined them once she’d escaped Camp Charlie.
Nikki explained to Entertainment Weekly: “It wasn’t a question of whether or not I was willing to split a million dollars with Leiya. It was a question of whether or not I was willing to lose it for Maddy. I didn’t feel like Leiya could keep up, and I wasn’t willing to make that sacrifice for myself or for Maddy after everything we’d gone through.”
Nikki later added: “I think that she is such a cool, incredibly competent person. I just think it hit a wall that she wasn’t able to climb over with us, and I wasn’t gonna get stuck on the other side of the wall.”
Maddy also talked through her reasoning with Entertainment Weekly. “For me, it was a big hit when we asked Leiya if she thinks she can do this again tomorrow after we see how much she has struggled on day one, and she can’t tell me yes. Nikki and I have kind of been both very dominant women on Team Alpha, and we have a mutual respect for each other, and I feel like I owed it to myself and I owed it to Nikki to just make the best decision for a team as a whole.
“There was never any greed or selfishness in it. I would rather be on a winning team of three than a losing team of two. It wasn’t about, ‘Oh, if we kick her off, we can get more money.’ I mean, does everybody want more money? Sure. Is that a driving factor for a lot of people? Sure. But that was not what made our decision. And I think that’s why we were both really struggling to make the decision – because we didn’t want it to look like we were just like, ‘Okay, thanks for helping us get this far, Leiya. Beat it.'”
Funnily enough, Leiya has a rather different take on what happened between her, Nikki and Maddy during the final of Outlast.
Maddy and Nikki seem to have lost touch with most of the Outlast: The Jungle cast over the last year. Maddy wrote on her Instagram: “I still talk to Nikki and Halle (love them). I haven’t talked much with anyone else, but have mad respect for everyone!”
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