‘Survivor’ Winner Ready to ‘Come Back and Kick Some A**’

CBS

A few years ago, several news outlets reported that Survivor winner Jenna Morasca was arrested for DUI and drug possession and treated for a possible overdose. Now Morasca is speaking out about it for the first time in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly. Here’s what she had to say.


Morasca Denies Ever Being Arrested or Getting a DUI

In the interview, Morasca said “don’t believe everything you read” and that she’s “doing great.”

“I’m doing great (and I’ve NEVER been arrested or got a DUI like a million websites like to say)! I had a tough go after my dad passed away suddenly, but I was able to get myself together and keep moving forward with the help of an incredible support system,” wrote Morasca.

The reports of her arrest came in early 2018. E! Online said that she was arrested in January 2018 for a DUI and drug possession, then treated for a possible overdose. The police said in a statement at the time that they found the Survivor winner unconscious in a running SUV parked at a stop sign. The officers gave her Narcan, which is an overdose reversal drug, and then she was put into an ambulance. The officers said she was charged on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs and possession of narcotics paraphernalia. TMZ reported she would also be charged with assaulting a police officer.

Perhaps the disparity is that she was never formally charged.


Morasca’s Father Died in 2016

Survivor fans know that Morasca left “All-Stars” in 2003 to be with her dying mother, who died eight days after Morasca returned home when Morasca was just 22 years old. Thirteen years later, her father died suddenly in 2016.

In June 2016, Morasca posted to Instagram, “Not an hour goes by where I don’t think about & miss my Dad & my heart breaks all over again. Breaks for the loss, loss of a life cut short, loss for all the things we had planned together, loss for the light in my life, loss for the laughter, loss for the love. Does it ever get any better?”

A year later, she posted a photo of herself with both of her parents captioned, “Sometimes loneliness can be the loudest sound in the room. Miss you mom and dad.”

It was just a few months later that the police incident occurred. Morasca’s Instagram is dark from October 2017 until April 2019.

But she appears to now be in a really good place. She works as a veterinary nurse and recently celebrated “level[ing] up at work” because she “kicked butt on [her] practical and written test.”

She told Entertainment Weekly, “I work at West Liberty Animal Hospital, where I get to see some of the exotic birds I did in the Amazon, & I also work as an ER nurse at an emergency hospital. I’ve always loved animals and I love being in this field.”

She also said she still keeps in touch with several people from the show, including Dolly Neely, Rob Cesternino, Jonny Fairplay, and Ethan Zohn, whom she dated for 10 years, from roughly 2003 to 2013. And Morasca, who was not included in last year’s “Winners at War” season, said that she would love to play the game again — “I’ve never been more ready to come back and kick some a**.”

As for when Survivor will return, there is talk about the production team filming three seasons this spring so that they can air one in the summer of 2021, one in the fall, and then one in the spring of 2022, but there is no word yet on if they can make that happen.

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