Survivor star opens up about emotional affairs and queer sex in new memoir
Parvati Shallow (Getty)
Parvati Shallow (Getty)
Survivor star Parvati Shallow has opened up about her emotional affairs and queer sex in her brand new memoir.
Nice Girls Don’t Win: How I Burned It All Down to Claim My Power sees Parvati Shallow talk about her experiences on various reality shows and address her queerness.
Shallow came out as queer in late December 2023. After she came out, comedian Mae Martin both revealed and celebrated their relationship on New Year’s Eve 2023, sharing a photo strip of the pair kissing alongside the adorable caption: “Parv’s here, she’s queer, Happy New Year.”
Then, earlier this year she shared an update on her relationship with comedian Martin, saying it was “in flux.”
Before that she was married to fellow Survivor star John Fincher, between 2018 and 2021, the pair welcomed a daughter in 2018.
Talking to Entertainment Weekly about her new memoir, Shallow said she’d aways wanted to write a book. She eventually found some time after her divorce to start thinking about it.
“I didn’t have my daughter for stretches at a time, a few days here, five days there, I had time and space to actually slow down enough and look at my life and be like, ‘Whoa, how did I get so wildly off track? How did I get here?'” she told EW.
She went on to call writing the volume “the hardest thing I’ve ever done” despite appearing on the notoriously brutal Survivor. But she also commented, “I feel so much lighter now after having written it.”
Shallow shared that she had learned to be more accepting of herself and various things she’s been through in her life. That acceptance, she said, extended to others and that she has also become more compassionate.
“I didn’t write the book to look good,” she continued. “There are so many embarrassing stories and stories that make me look bad in the book, and I wanted to share those to humanize myself, and for other people to have that permission to accept themselves too.”
Shallow also touched on her experience with The Traitors, which she appeared on the second season of. After discussing returning to Survivor for money Shallow said she did The Traitors because it “just sounded cool.”
She also said that, “Alan Cumming is the host and I was like, Yes! And I’m just so glad I did, because it really did burst the door open for me to go on a different network to connect with a different fan base.”
Shallow said as well that “And now that I am doing these drag shows all over the place, it’s fans of Traitors and fans of Survivor coming together in one big room for a big party and a celebration and it’s just so joyful. So Traitors brought me a lot of joy, and I’m really glad I did it.”
Nice Girls Don’t Win: How I Burned It All Down to Claim My Power by Parvati Shallow is out on 8 July.
