This is shaping up to be a huge year for corrections officer Dani.
Not only is she competing on Australian Survivor: Brains V Brawn, she’s planning to get married to partner Jasmin and start a family.
The 34-year-old from Sydney tells TV WEEK the wedding will be “low key”.
“We’ve decided it will just be her and me kind of eloping for the wedding,” she explains.
“But then we’re going to throw a massive party.”
Dani says she and Jasmin are looking to start a family towards the end of the year.
“We’ve been ready for years, so now’s a great time.”
Jasmin, who’s a “massive” Survivor fan, was thrilled when Dani was cast on the show.
“She loves and supports me and is stoked that I actually went out there and did my best.”
Dani says a lot of women on this season of Survivor are at the same stage of their lives, which was a “good thing to bond over” during shooting.
“Shannon’s already married but she’s like, ‘Yep, kids,’ and then Hayley’s like, ‘Yep, marriage, kids,‘ and then Flick the same. We were all on the same page.”
This week, viewers will see Dani trying to form an all-girl alliance on the Brawn tribe.
She says that wasn’t her plan when she came into the game.
“However, with such an amazing group of females, you’d be silly not to want to bind together and make a kicka*se girls’ group,” she adds.
“It’s good to get close to the guys as well because they’re the strength, but at the end of the day, girls rule.”
She says Hayley, who started out on the Brains tribe, is a great player.
“She’s amazing physically, her social game’s great and her strategic game’s amazing.”
Dani’s focus is getting rid of Simon, even though she was “tight” with him from the beginning.
“We got along really well,” she says. “Simon does have a big ego on him but he’s actually a great guy.”
With Simon being a “huge physical competitor” and having two immunity idols in his pocket, Dani is keen to get him out before the merge.
“After merge he’d just dominate everyone, so he’s definitely a huge threat.”
Dani says her game plan was always to fly under the radar in the beginning and then “creep up and take over”.
“Simon thinks he’s the alpha of the tribe, but we all know who the real alpha is, and that’s me.”