‘Survivor’ Winner Reveals How He Kept His Season-Long Alliance A Secret 

In the months since Kyle Fraser was declared the “Sole Survivor” of Season 48, he has renewed his vows to his wife, Maggie Turner, cashed a $1 million check, and returned to Fiji to compete on the upcoming anniversary season “Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans.”

Since winning the reality competition series in May, Fraser has been as open with fans as possible, taking to social media to answer their burning questions about his “Survivor” career. 

Of all of the queries he’s fielded, including why he wore a leather belt all season and why he sent his closest ally, Kamilla Karthigesu to the dreaded final four fire-making challenge, Fraser revealed in a July 20 Instagram post that there’s one question he’s heard over and over again since his season debuted earlier this year. 

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Unpacking Kyle and Kamilla’s Game-Changing Secret Alliance

According to Fraser, fans needed to know: How did he and Kamilla keep their alliance a secret from the other castaways all season long? 

Kyle and Kamilla started the season together on the Civa tribe, striking up an undercover alliance in the early days of the game. Thankfully, it was easy to keep their alliance a secret, with Civa avoiding Tribal Council until a Day 8 tribe swap shook up the season. 

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 After the swap, the duo once again landed on the Vula beach together, where they secretly worked together to successfully play Kyle’s idol and blindside Thomas Krottinger after Kyle discovered that one of his allies had rooted through his bag. In the post-Merge game, Kyle and Kamilla continued to vote together, successfully eliminating every remaining player with the help of fellow finalists Joe Hunter and Eva Erickson. 

A dynamic duo themselves, Joe and Eva allied with Kyle and Kamilla separately, and were none-the-wiser to their behind-the-scenes scheming. When the quartet reached the Final Four  challenge, Kyle emerged victorious, shocking fans when he chose to send his closest ally, Kamilla, to the dreaded fire-making challenge with Eva. 

Kamilla ultimately lost the challenge, becoming the ninth and final member of the jury, a move that likely won Kyle the title of “Sole Survivor” over Joe, the season’s favorite to win. 

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Fraser Reveals Exactly How He Kept His Alliance ‘Hush-Hush’

While Fraser has previously taken to Instagram to open up about his decision to send Kamilla to fire, he more recently revealed about how they managed to keep their season-long alliance under wraps, especially after pulling off a successful idol play so early in the game. 

“If you remember, in Episode 4, Kamilla and I put on this ruse that we weren’t close, that we weren’t in an alliance together so that we could ultimately play the idol and blindside one of the California girls [or the] three Lagi boys without them knowing,” recapped Kyle in the recent Instagram video.

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“What you didn’t see were all the lies me and Kamilla had to tell after that idol play, after that vote, in order still to make people think that we weren’t close and that we weren’t working together,” revealed Fraser. “So when we got back to camp, I knew that we had to keep the lie going in order to manage our threat level.”

Fraser continued: “This is the lie that we sold immediately when we got back to camp: I stopped everybody and I said, “Hey, listen, I knew that I wanted to vote with you guys, I wanted to play with you guys, but right before Tribal Council I went through my bag and immediately I knew that somebody had gone through it. So that’s when I knew I had to play my idol.’”

In a masterful strategic play, Kyle went on to convince his tribemates that he went to Kamilla in a last-ditch effort to save his game, claiming that he coerced into voting with him by telling her, “I have an idol and I’m gonna play it, and either you can vote with me or you can vote with them, but if you vote with them, you’re probably gonna go home.”

“That’s the lie that I told,” added Fraser. “Obviously, it’s not true.”

Now a “Survivor” winner, Fraser similarly revealed that the game-saving lie was completely improvised, adding that Kamilla ran with the fabrication to save their secret alliance. 

“It just goes to show,” concluded Kyle. “Kamilla and I share the same brain.”

Kyle Fraser and Kamilla Karthigesu will reunite on the cast of “Survivor 50: In the Hands of the Fans,” alongside fellow “Survivor 48” finalist Joe Hunter.