Jeff Varner, the Survivor competitor who was booted from the show after outing fellow contestant Zeke Smith at a Tribal Council, says that he was fired from his job as a real estate agent as a result.
The episode was filmed 10 months ago in Fiji, but Varner told the News & Record Greensboro that he was not allowed to speak about it until it aired last Wednesday in the US.
The episode made headlines around the world, the next day, Varner was let go by Allen Tate Realtors, reportedly being told he was “in the middle of a news story that we don’t want anything to do with.”
The former news anchor, who is gay himself, said that he has spent the last several months “educating myself and advocating even more so for the LGBTQ community.”
“I feel like I was able to do some really good work in that time that I hope to continue,” he continued. “Being unable to talk about it was challenging, but having the episode air, there is a sense of relief that now the true healing can begin.”
The CBS network has stood by its decision to air the moment rather than edit it out of the episode in question, saying that it created an “unexpected but important dialogue.”
Source: The Hollywood Reporter.
Photo: CBS Photo Archive / Getty.
