‘Survivor’ Runner Up Is Engaged

CBS "Survivor: Redemption Island" logo.

“Survivor” has seen a flurry of weddings and baby announcements in recent years. Now, another former contestant is about to tie the knot: “Survivor: Redemption Island” second runner-up Natalie Tenerelli announced recently that she is engaged. Here’s everything you need to know.

Natalie Is Marrying Another Reality TV Star

Tenerelli announced her engagement via an Instagram post on November 14, showing her boyfriend Dan Cox proposing to her in Tuscany, Italy. Her caption read, “OMG! We are in Tuscany and we are ENGAGED! Is this real life?! @danielgcox I love you so much! GRATEFUL ❤️”

Cox posted a similar series of photos to his Instagram account the same day, saying, “I proposed to my best friend in Tuscany last night and I have never been more excited.”

Cox was a contestant on season 9 of “The Bachelorette” in 2013, where he was described as a “30-year-old beverage sales director from Las Vegas, NV,” and was eliminated week 3. He went on to appear in season 2 of “Bachelor in Paradise” in 2015, where he quit on week 5.

Cox currently runs a business called “Wellthy,” according to his Instagram account, which is a brand of chewable multi-vitamin dietary supplements. He also hosted a podcast called “Excuse the Disruption,” in which he interviewed “disruptors in their industry, individuals who have gone against the grain and done things their own way.” The podcast ran from 2018 to 2020.

Cox and Tenerelli also jointly run a company called “Peaches.LA,” which Tenerelli says she started in order to “help get some of the best peaches in the world into the hands of everyone outside the LA Farmers Markets and top chefs.” In 2019, the LA Times did a feature on Tenerelli Orchards, the company from which Peaches.LA is branched, calling the company’s “O’Henry peach” in particular “highly seasonal, a treat of epic proportions…they are not cheap, but well worth it.”

Natalie Has Appeared in Another Reality Show Since ‘Survivor’

YouTubeNatalie Tenerelli, Rob Mariano, and Phillip Sheppard at the “Survivor: Redemption Island” finale (2011).

Since appearing on “Survivor: Redemption Island” at the age of 19 over 10 years ago, Tenerelli, who was a professional dancer at the time, went on to dance for the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team, and was featured in an eight-episode docuseries by E! entitled, “L.A. Clippers Dance Squad.” According to her Twitter account, the now 30-year-old is a “former NBA dancer.”

Tenerelli, who was the youngest female contestant in the show’s history at the time, went on to form an alliance with returning player and “Survivor” legend “Boston Rob” Mariano, as well as the rest of her Ometepe tribemates who made it to the merge. The former Ometepe members went on to decimate the former members of the opposing tribe – Zapatera – until six Ometepe remained. Mariano, as well as the irksome Phillip Sheppard, made it to the final 3 with Tenerelli. Mariano went on to win with eight jury votes, while Sheppard got one and Tenerelli got zero.

Tenerelli was asked to return in “Survivor: Cambodia,” subject to a fan vote, though she did not receive enough votes to crack the top ten and become a returning player. As of now, “Redemption Island” is the only season she has competed on.

In a December 2020 interview in Entertainment Weekly, Tenerelli revealed that she is still close with Mariano, as well as three-time contestant Andrea Boehlke the most, saying “Rob is like a brother to me! We don’t talk too often, but I know he always has my back. I feel the same way about Andrea! I love that girl!”

She also revealed that she was quite close with “Survivor: Vanuatu” contestant Julie Berry, saying that Berry “wasn’t on my season but deserves a shout-out because she is one of my dearest friends and I can’t imagine not having met her.”

Tenerelli also reflected on her time on the show, and talked about how she has grown:

I was so young and naive then. Now I see it as the most crucial point in my life because it caused me to look inward more than ever. Watching yourself on TV is strange. I learned to be easier on myself after beating myself up for all the things I didn’t like seeing. At the end of the day, I’m a much better human for all the perspective Survivor has given me.

Be sure to catch “Survivor 41” on CBS, Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time.