“Survivor” Transgender Player Zeke Smith Voted Out After Being Outed By Fellow Contestant, Says "I Knew I Was a Goner"

The tribe has spoken: Zeke Smith has to go.

In the latest episode of “Survivor: Game Changers,” Smith was sent home in a tribunal vote following the merge. Smith initially gained nationwide attention when fellow contestant Jeff Varner outed him out as transgender in an earlier episode, CNN said. Although Varner immediately apologized (and was soon booted off), Smith believes in his exit interview that that particular moment would have been enough to make him a popular choice in the vote.

"From playing this game, I have confronted so many fears and moved beyond boundaries that I've long kept in my life. It was a tremendously significant experience. I will forever be a better person because I played “Survivor”," he said after the credits have rolled.

In a separate interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he explained what could have driven his fellow contestants to boot him out. He said, “After what had happened with Varner, my life in the game was pretty short. It became abundantly clear on the first day of the merge. My name started getting tossed around, and the reason why is that nobody wanted to sit next to me in the end, because I had a very compelling story. The biggest sign was that I had a lot of great relationships with a lot of people, and all of the sudden, nobody was coming to me to talk to me, about anything. The events of what transpired at that Tribal Council were really never spoken of again, after I had the fireside chat with everyone after the merge feast. I would chase people down and we would have conversations, but they were very surface level. Even with people I was tight with, like Andrea and Cirie. We went from a ride-or-die final three deal to saying, "Let's lock in a really great final seven." I knew it was over.”

He also said that there was only one person whom he trusted in the group, and it wouldn’t be enough to keep him in the game. Confiding to TVGuide, he said, “I was. There was only one person I could trust in the merge, and that was Sarah Lacina, and I knew my game hinged upon her. I accepted long ago that I either knew where the vote was going to be or it was going to be me. And I kind of had to compartmentalize my stress, so I tried not to worry about it too much. ... I was definitely blindsided. I did not expect it.”