Chief financial officer Kent became the ninth person to be booted off Australian Survivor last night, but he didn’t use his exit interview to bitterly rant at his tribemates.
Instead, the 51-year-old divorced dad took the opportunity to propose to his partner Leanne!
Kent tells TV Week that the shock proposal was a last-second decision he made in the heat of the moment – and somehow managed to pull off.
“I’m feeling a bit depressed [after being voted off], I haven’t eaten properly for three weeks, I haven’t slept properly for three weeks, and I’m feeling a bit alone,” he told TV WEEK with a laugh.
“A brainwave hit me – maybe I’ll nick one of these voting cards and write ‘Leanne will you marry me?’” the South Australian recalls. “Just to see if someone out there did love me.”
After watching last night’s episode at a friend’s place, Kent and his unsuspecting girlfriend headed home and watched the exit interview.
“At the end of the show I mentioned my kids and my mother and [Leanne] didn’t get a mention, so there was a bit of tension in the air. We’re sitting there and the [proposal] card is held up and at first she didn’t really register what was happening.”
“Then all of a sudden the waterworks started and yes, she accepted. It was a complete surprise, I’m glad I could fool her. I couldn’t fool most of my tribe but I fooled her!”
Losing 19 kilograms in Samoa “eating nothing but rice and coconut” certainly gave self-confessed “big bloke” Kent a head start in the shedding for the wedding stakes.
But he confesses: “10 kilos have found their way back!”
“It’s better than Biggest Loser,” he says about the lack of food while in Samoa. “Mind you, I will never look at a coconut again!”