Simone Nguyen has revealed Patrick Bolton and Ali Elliott from her Hustlers tribe already knew each other before competing on Survivor: Heroes vs. Healers vs. Hustlers.
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Simone, a 25-year-old diversity advocate from Worcester, MA who currently resides in New York, NY, was voted out of her "Yawa" tribe on Night 6 of the game in the latest episode through a unanimous vote despite having developed a bond and friendship with Ali, a 24-year-old celebrity assistant from Eastvale, CA who currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.
Simone hoped the tribe would target Patrick, a 24-year-old small business owner from Lanett, AL who currently resides in Auburn, AL, instead, but there's apparently a great reason for why Ali took Patrick's side at Tribal Council and voted against Simone.
"She would cut anybody's throat. She's a player. She's smart. And that's something that was obvious to everybody, that she wasn't a goofball. She was the opposite of Patrick, which was so weird because, like, they went to college together," Simone disclosed during an interview with Dalton Ross and Jessica Shaw on their Entertainment Weekly Morning Live podcast.
"They lived across the street from each other. So it's almost like, okay, these two people who look like they're so different, they have this secret backstory. And of course you're going to choose the person who you've known for years over the person you met six days ago."
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Dalton then followed up, "So they knew each other before they got out on the island?"
"Yeah, they both went to University of Auburn," Simone replied.
"That's a big college though, but they knew each other there?" Dalton asked.
"Yeah, Patrick lived across the street from her. He helped her move her mattress upstairs," Simone said.
Jessica laughed at the irony and wondered whether the producers knew about Patrick and Ali's history when casting the individuals for Survivor's 35th season.
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"Yeah, oh my God, I have no -- like I had no idea, but yeah, it all came out," Simone noted.
Simone hoped to work with Ali even before the game began, but she confessed on the podcast that "Ali is terrifying."
"She's terrifying for a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons that she's terrifying is she's so beautiful. So, in the beginning, I met her and I think it's just my way of expressing myself, I was like, 'Oh my God.' Because we were in pre-game and not allowed to talk to each other, but I was like, 'Oh my God, it's so good to finally meet you,'" Simone recalled.
"When I met her, I was like, 'I hate you. You're so beautiful!' And immediately she was like, 'You hate me?!?' And I was like, 'Nooooo! Friendship with this goddess over!' But over the course of the day, you just work hard and then you try to build a relationship or whatever."
And Simone also loved Patrick as a person, but she wasn't shy about the fact he got on her nerves sometimes.
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"He would get up in the middle of the night and he would be like, 'Everybody, wake up! It's the morning!!!' And then we would all wake up and it would be the middle of the night, and I would get so angry... He really enjoyed the camera time, and I couldn't hold it against him, because he's on TV," she explained.
"We're all on TV. He's dancing with a crab; this is what he's living for."
Ali and Patrick had an alliance on Day 1 of the game despite his "wild banshee" personality that rubbed most of his fellow castaways the wrong way, so now their immediate Survivor connection makes more sense.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski