Kyle Fraser Details Devastating Achilles Injury That Ended His ‘Survivor 50’ Run (Exclusive)
Kyle Fraser's return to Survivor came to a sudden and painful end on Season 50 when the recent winner was medically evacuated after suffering a devastating Achilles injury during a challenge. The shocking moment cut short what could have been a strong run for the Season 48 champ who had quickly built relationships and positioned himself well within his tribe.
In his exit interview with Men’s Journal, the Brooklyn-based lawyer, 32, reveals the injury was even more severe than viewers saw on television, explaining that his foot was “dangling” after the fall and that he knew immediately something was seriously wrong. Despite the trauma, he says he tried to push through the pain and prove he could continue, hoping the damage wasn’t irreparable.
While his Survivor 50 journey ended earlier than expected, he has plenty to celebrate with a new wife and his first child on the way — all while leaving the door open for a potential return.
Scroll down to read the full exit interview with Kyle.
Men’s Journal: How you doing today?
Kyle Fraser: I am doing well. I'm doing well, you know, it's been a long week, but here we are. It's been a long week. Obviously I knew it was coming.
Men’s Journal: How was it watching it back? Was it emotional? Did that edit feel like it captured what you remember from out there?
Kyle Fraser: You know, I think the edit did a great job, like it captured most of my experience. The challenge was obviously a little bit different than I think you saw it in real time. Obviously, I had gotten up the wall myself with Q [Burdette] earlier, and then came back down. And what you saw was actually, you know, I helped get other people up again, and then I actually tore my Achilles on the third go, once the wall was covered in mud. So that was, like, a little trippy to watch back, but I also understand why it had to be edited that way—there's only so much time. From the entire experience, I think the show did a good job of capturing how I was playing and what it was like for me to kind of deal with that injury.
Men’s Journal: It looked like you were in a really good spot on your tribe too. Does that make it harder?
Kyle Fraser: Yeah, you know, I did. I really felt like I was in a great spot. I had made tons of relationships. I was playing the game hard because I knew that because I just won, because these people have literally just saw me win a week earlier, I had to play hard. I couldn't be passive. And there's risk in that, right? But I was willing to take that risk. But the thing that I could do to limit that risk was socially build relationships first, which I talked about in my professional and I think that it ultimately allowed me to put myself in a great position.
The thing is, I had a lot of things going on, but I needed a partner, and Genevieve [Mushaluk], I think, was doing a really awesome job of allowing us to both manage these narratives. And then when she found that idol to solidify it, I was like, one, I know Genevieve is 100 percent with me now because she's just showing me this important piece of information. But two, I know about Q's lost vote. I know about Colby [Donaldson]’s lost vote. Like, I got all the information. I'm in alliances with everybody. It was going well, but what are you gonna do?
Men’s Journal:Did you know when you got injured that it was bad, or were you hoping maybe it'll be okay?
Kyle Fraser: A little bit of both. I knew when it happened. I mean, looking down at my foot, and you could even see in the show, my shoe was blown out, like the sole was blown out of my shoe. But when I went to go back for that third attempt, my leg crumbled, and I'd never felt anything like that before in my life. And then I heard Q yell, "Kyle, I think he broke your foot." And I was like, "Oh my goodness." I looked down at my foot was just dangling off to the right, and I tried to hobble back over to the wall. I think they showed part of it to be like, "Yo, one of y'all needs to come down now." And Jeff [Probst] was like, "No, we need to, like, you need to tell me if we need to stop, until we stop." So I knew that something was wrong just by the function of how my body responded to that. At the same time, I had that childlike sort of hope that maybe something magical would happen and it would get better, or we could tape it up and I have to deal with the pain. But it wouldn't be irreparable harm; it wouldn't be a situation like that.
Men’s Journal: Was there anything that we didn't see? How was it back at camp? Were you trying to stay in the shelter or were you walking around?
Kyle Fraser: Yeah, my tribe mates were trying to get me to stop doing things, but I was trying my hardest to show people, both my tribe mates and production, that I got this, like I'm good guys. When we first got back in the mud, we had to wash each other off or wash ourselves off in the ocean, and I couldn't walk in the sand. That was the one thing that, for sure, couldn't happen, because it's so uneven, so I would keep collapsing. But then going into the ocean, I couldn't grip anything, so I was getting washed away in the ocean, trying to wipe the mud off, which is terrible. I was trying to do it nonchalantly, like in the shallow end while everybody else was down there. But I would sit down in the camp when needed, I would go and get water, chats with people and do things like that. And then I just kind of tried to set it up like a Boston Rob [Mariano] situation—have people come to me. I don't know if it would have lasted, but I was doing the most out there to try and show that I could stay.
Men’s Journal: Your tribe seemed very strong. Maybe you wouldn't have gone to tribal council, but who did you feel was on the bottom?
Kyle Fraser: So it's tough because we were a really cohesive tribe, and we all like each other. There wasn't any beef, even that Colby and Rizo [Velovic] thing got amended very quickly. I think that Aubry [Bracco] and Genevieve had this thing, and I didn't quite understand it until I watched it back, but Aubry had even thrown Genevieve's name out, and Genevieve was obviously aware of that. I was aware of that. Other people on the beach were aware of that. I was close with Aubry personally, same with Angelina [Keeley], but I felt like they were playing sort of a separate game. But then Angelina and I were really connecting. And then Angelina asked if I wanted to play with her. She was like, "I'll be your No. 1." And then I was like, "Okay." So at this point, Aubry is the one person who hasn't affirmatively said to me, "Let's do something." And so that's where I was trending. I think Genevieve was trending that way. I think that the other group would have been comfortable with that as well. We all got along, and in Survivor, you kind of try to do that thing—we don't want to talk about it, but we were talking about it. Not in that much detail, but it was sort of trending towards Aubry.
Men’s Journal: When you saw your tribe, what did you think? Were you happy? Who did you want to work with early?
Kyle Fraser: Thank God Kamilla [Karthigesu] and Joe [Hunter] weren't on my tribe. From a physical perspective, I was actually super excited. I knew Stephenie [LaGrossa Kendrick] would be like an absolute weapon for us, just because of her size and also the different things that we could put her in. Aubry, I remembered it sort of being like a utility tool player. I thought with Genevieve, we'd be good on the puzzles. I thought Angelina also, from what I remember, could do puzzles. I felt like with Colby, Q, and I—although in different seasons, I think maybe we've underperformed a little bit based off of our physical statures—I was like, "Oh, we got this. We got the most muscle out of all three tribes."
So I was excited physically. Socially, I'll be honest, although it went well for me socially, I was extremely nervous because I didn't know where I would fit in. I was worried about Rizo. I think out of the two, Savannah [Louis] and Rizo, I probably wanted Savannah on my tribe to start pregame. Of course, now that I had Rizo and got to see him on the beach, I love Rizo, so I'm glad that it shook out that way. But socially, I was actually very scared when I first saw my tribe. I didn't know if they'd be receptive to me. I didn't know where I would fit in. And it turns out I was just wrong, and I'm so grateful for that.
Men’s Journal: I feel like a lot of people were scared of Genevieve going into the game. She was your No. 1. Talk to me about Genevieve, and were you expecting to work with her?
Kyle Fraser: I wanted to work with her. I don't know if I was expecting to work with her, because I didn't know if she would want to work with me. It's funny, my plan when I saw Genevieve was on my tribe was to approach her very softly. I think even in that little micro interaction you saw, I think I say the words like, "I think stuff is starting to happen here," and that's me kind of trying to be like, "Hey, how you doing?" And Genevieve goes, "I want to play with you." And I'm like, "Oh, I'm so glad you said that." Because now we can cut through the bullshit, and now we can start playing this game.
Like I said, I knew I needed to get good with a lot of people, because if a swap happens, something crazy happens. You need to have relationships when a swap or a merge happens, so people not only with you, but they can start saying good things to get other people that they're connected with from their previous seasons. But when you play with a bunch of people, all it takes is one sentence, one slip up, one thing to go wrong, for all those things to fall apart. So you need someone to manage those narratives. And I knew I needed somebody like Genevieve, who has all the tools to play Survivor—smart, charming, good at challenges. We can do things softly and persuade people softly, just like Kamilla and I did. So I knew I needed her if I wanted to play the type of game that I wanted to play. Once that sort of got unlocked, it's like all of a sudden all the new video game characters were unlocked. I'm like, "We can play this way, because we got extra moves."
Men’s Journal: Were there any conversations you saw on TV that surprised you? Anything you weren't aware of, whether it was on your tribe or the other tribes?
Kyle Fraser: You know, when Q came back from Exile, I think he actually told us that Coach [Benjamin Wade] was in that agreement as well. And it might be that—I don't know what the edit showed—that Coach is in that agreement. So that was so funny, like hearing that from Q and then watching that back, but like it looked like Coach didn't agree. I can't wait for that extra press from them whenever they get out. But then the Aubry-Genevieve thing—Aubry was, like, everybody was weary of her, but I didn't quite get it. I was weary of her, but I didn't get quite what everyone else had picked up on. And then the Aubry-Genevieve conversation sort of anchors to me why things were playing out the way they were, because Genevieve had explained that to me, and Aubry had even thrown Genevieve's name out, but I didn't quite understand the severity of that conversation.
Men’s Journal: Even when I was watching it, I was like, "Wait, what's the disconnect here?" I couldn't understand what it was. It just seemed awkward.
Kyle Fraser: It was. And that's the thing, when that's how Survivor is, right? People can have interactions like that, which you're not a part of at all, but then somebody comes back to you and you're trying to pick up the pieces. Is Genevieve lying to me? Is there something I'm missing? Why is everybody acting this way? I think that's a great representation, actually, of how Survivor plays out and how it can throw off things in the game unexpectedly just by one awkward micro interaction.
Men’s Journal: Was anyone idol hunting out there?
Kyle Fraser: Obviously Genevieve and Stephenie. I don't know if Rizo was. I thought maybe he was, but I couldn't tell you. I think he actually told me eventually, while when we started to work together, that he maybe wasn't. I had my eyes out. The way that idol hunt is, like, if I have on adultery time, and I'll go off with like one or two people, but my idol hunt is kind of like the Rick Devens strategy, where you're talking with somebody, but you're looking. So I was looking pretty hard. But honestly, I need my threat level at a zero. So if somebody sees me looking for this thing, I'm cooked. So I really was kind of just trying to play the social strategic game and then hope that something like the Genevieve thing happens for me, and I can just get the information. But people were definitely looking.
Men’s Journal: It seemed like everyone clocked that Savannah was another winner. Had you heard the same thing, and did that play into your strategy at all?
Kyle Fraser: Yeah, you know, you had to think that when Savannah wasn't on my tribe and Rizo was on my tribe initially, when I saw the colors, at first, I'm like, okay, clearly, most likely Savannah has won. And then Rizo, in the same way Savannah kind of cleared the air, Rizo cleared the air with us and said, "Hey, I lost in fire, Savannah won." And he did tell us how close they were. But I just wasn't thinking about that, to be honest with you, because I'm like, if both of them somehow make it far into the game, then everybody screwed up. But I assumed that Savannah was a winner, and Rizo confirmed it very quickly. On these returning seasons, you kind of have these moments where everybody gets together and we say, "Okay, let's clear the air," because people wanted to talk about my season too, and so I had to kind of go on the defensive.
Men’s Journal: I know you already won, but now it almost feels like there's a little unfinished because of how you left. Is Survivor something you're closing the door on, or are you keeping it open?
Kyle Fraser: Yeah, you know, my wife and I are expecting a little girl here in like two and a half months, and so my mind is on that entirely right now. I can never say close the door, because I just have too much respect for the game, and honestly, what Jeff and that team and this game and everyone else who I've encountered because of it have done in my life. I could never say that or disrespect the game. If they call me up in a couple years, of course I would love to come back up. This is the best stretch of my life, and a lot of that revolves around Survivor. It's a part of me now. So it's really tough to say. Not in the immediate future, but I would come back. I would come back eventually, one day, I'm sure, if they gave me that chance.