Australian Survivor star George Mladenov, the self-proclaimed ‘King of Bankstown’, is the most unlikely hero of reality TV that we’ve ever seen.
WATCH BELOW: Everything You Need To Know About George From Australian Survivor
From the very first time we were introduced to the political operative, we were immediately intrigued.
Fans of the show didn’t really know what to make of George, but he gradually turned from villain to hero, and was almost crowned the Sole Survivor of 2021.
In an exclusive interview with New Idea, George reveals that what we saw of him on the show was the real deal, and he stayed true to himself the whole way through.
“I went on Survivor to be me, I wasn’t scared to be me,” he says. “I live with a mentality where you can take me for what I am and that’s what you’re going to get.”
It’s that level of authenticity that George believes is why he resonated with so many people watching at home, especially within his community.
“I think part of the reason why I was so endearing to the public back at home is because you saw someone that was just 100 per cent themselves,” he says.
“I represented my community, Bankstown, I stood up for what I believed in, I spoke my mind and I looked at the consequences of doing that in the [public] eye and I got out a bat and I swung them away.”
We saw all sides of George whilst he was in the Australian outback fighting for the chance to win, but it was his ‘chaotic’ side that came to light more often than not.
George was involved in not one, not two, not even three, but four different close-calls with fire – one where he actually saved his close-friend Cara Atchison’s life.
“I think part of the grand irony of me using the name fire tribe when people weren’t interested on the Queen Elizabeth II tribe was that I could never make fire and I knew I had four fire incidents under my belt at that stage,” the 31-year-old says.
“Twice people nearly burnt down because of me, but the other two times I saved them, so I think in the grand scheme of things, it evened out,” he laughs.
Now that he’s done wreaking havoc on his campmates, George is back home with his family in Bankstown – an area that’s currently under strict lockdown restrictions in Sydney.
“Every time I’ve gone on one of my walks around Bankstown ironically usually it’s a police officer or a defence force member or a paramedic that stops me and then goes ‘are you King George? You live in Bankstown?’ and I just go ‘of course I’m still here in Bankstown’,” he says.
The feedback he’s received from locals has been overwhelmingly positive, and George found himself unintentionally representing his local community.
“It’s like all I did was go on a TV show, which was a childhood dream of mine, be proudly George from Bankstown, representing the area and it really has brought joy and made a difference in people’s lives.”
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