Romance Refresh
What Happened to ‘Survivor’ Couple Ozzy Lusth & Amanda Kimmel?
Ozzy Lusth is returning to Survivor for its milestone 50th season, which will mark his fifth appearance on the show. Before the official cast was announced on May 28, many fans were also hoping that Amanda Kimmel would come out of obscurity and join the list of contestants, too.
Unfortunately, Kimmel isn’t on the narrowed-down list, so viewers won’t get to see a reunion between the Season 16 contestants. Kimmel and Lusth were both on the “favorites” tribe during Survivor: Micronesia in 2008, after previously competing on Seasons 15 and 13, respectively, and they began a showmance during filming.
Survivor: Micronesia filmed in the fall of 2007, and Lusth and Kimmel announced at the live reunion show in May 2008 that they were still dating. Unfortunately, the relationship didn’t last long after that. Scroll down to find out what happened between them in the real world.
What happened to Ozzy Lusth and Amanda Kimmel?
Lusth spilled all the tea about his relationship with Kimmel while appearing on the Drop Your Buffs podcast in 2021. For the first time, he revealed that he actually had a girlfriend back home while filming Survivor: Micronesia and said he told Kimmel about the relationship on the plane ride home.
“After the game was over, [Amanda and I] were immediately, like, together,” Lusth shared. “Day 40, we were hanging out at Ponderosa, and if you want to know some real gossip, I had a girlfriend.” He added that he was “ready for that relationship to be over” and that things were “kind of rocky and kind of on its way out.”
When he got home, he broke up with his girlfriend and dated Kimmel for “maybe six, eight months, maybe a little bit longer.” However, “It just never quite worked,” Lusth continued. “The passion of the island, the jungle love, the fighting our way for a million dollars was amazing, and I just didn’t see our personalities sync up correctly. It didn’t end up working out.”
Lusth admitted to doing “some questionable things,” which led to the relationship fizzling out. “When I really think about it, I was an a**hole,” he shared. “I should’ve been more open to my feelings with her at the time. I kind of liked the excitement of maybe this storybook affair of Amanda and I falling in love with each other, having a great relationship, and coming back and getting married on live TV. We were going to be like the Boston Rob and Amber [Mariano]. It just never really worked out that way.”
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He said he still had “strong feelings” for Kimmel once they got home, but when she found out at the live reunion that she didn’t win the game, “it put so much stress on” the relationship.
However, a few years later, they were both living in Los Angeles and their “lives were in orbit around each other.” After running into each other somewhere, they started to date again. During the reconciled romance, Kimmel told Lusth that she was actually the one who orchestrated his blindside on Survivor: Micronesia (on the show, winner Parvati Shallow took credit for the move).
“Maybe everything would’ve changed if she’d just been honest,” Lusth said. “It kind of goes back to this idea of honesty. Hiding from the truth in those moments, it ends up creating such a weird energy. I’m like, ‘Damn, Amanda, you should’ve just told everybody! Everybody would’ve been so into that!'”
Lusth speculated that Kimmel might have had a better shot at winning against Shallow if she owned up to her part in making the move, which he said may have led to things working out differently between them. Of course, that’s neither here nor there at this point.
Is Ozzy Lusth married now?
Based on his social media activity, Lusth appears to be single. He creates content on OnlyFans and in a since-deleted tweet from 2022, he came out as bisexual.
“And for my Republican Colleagues, and anyone else who matters, Yeah I’m Bisexual. Am I committing crimes??” he wrote. “If so come get me. Let us ALL live with dignity. Ask yourself if you support people, or the f**ked dogma you’ve been fed. #ozzyisBi.”
What happened to Amanda Kimmel?
These days, Kimmel lives a much more secluded life. She played Survivor for her third and final time during Season 20 (Heroes vs. Villains), which aired in 2010.
In 2015, Kimmel married her husband Matt Cooper in Montana. They have two children. Kimmel does not have any public social media accounts.
