Jonny Fairplay poses for a photo with his grandmother, Jean Cooke, at the season finale of ‘Survivor: Pearl Islands’ in December 2003. Photo:
Kevin Winter/Getty
Outside of being part of “one of the biggest lies in TV history,” Fairplay remembered Ellen Jean Hauser as a “loving grandparent”
Survivor alum Jonny Fairplay is mourning the loss of his grandmother, now 20-plus years after strategically and infamously faking her death for sympathy on television.
On Saturday, Feb. 8, the 50-year-old reality star shared on social media that his grandmother, Ellen Jean Hauser, had died the day prior. Fairplay notably lied about his grandmother’s death for an advantage on Survivor: Pearl Islands in 2003.
The reality star also confirmed the news to both TMZ and Entertainment Weekly, sharing that Hauser, who went by her middle name and was known to Survivor fans as Fairplay’s “dead grandma,” had died at Embrace Hospice House in Myrtle Beach, S.C. of kidney failure.
“I’ll miss her every day,” the reality star told both outlets in a statement. “It’s easy to think she was just part of one of the biggest lies in TV history, which made me famous, but I look at her place in my life as a loving grandparent who only wanted the best for me in my life and would do anything to help me get it. Which she did.”
Jonny Fairplay on ‘Survivor: Micronesia’. Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty
Fairplay added that Hauser “loved the exposure and attention” she got from his big lie on Survivor, which made him one of the show’s most notorious villains in order to get an advantage during a reward challenge.
At the time, Fairplay arranged for a friend to break the news during a loved ones visit that his grandmother had “died,” subsequently earning him both sympathy from fellow competitors and an eventual reward challenge victory.
He then told audiences in a confessional that his grandmother was actually not dead but rather “sitting home watching Jerry Springer right now.”
The scheme, according to series host Jeff Probst, was the “greatest lie ever told on Survivor.” He added on finale night that year that the lie “guaranteed Jon a spot in the Survivor villain hall of fame.” (Fairplay, whose real name is Jon Dalton, eventually returned for Survivor: Micronesia in 2008.)
Fairplay’s grandmother, per EW, was born in 1934, once dated Grand Ole Opry host Faron Young, had a fling with actor Robert Goulet and was known to embrace her unexpected reality TV fame — including with a license plate that read “DEAD GMA.”
“Her dying words were something like, ‘Jonny, I want to see you on Survivor 50, The Traitors and Deal or No Deal Island,'” Fairplay told EW of Hauser. “I had no idea she had so many streaming services.”
Fairplay later took part in a memorial for Hauser with the Reality After Show podcast, in which he confirmed that she was “really no longer with us.”
As Fairplay told producer Bobby Goodsby, Hauser loved Pontiac cars, was often compared to Elizabeth Taylor and was “full of spunk.”
Speaking with EW in 2020, Fairplay revealed he doesn’t regret his “dead grandma” strategy on Survivor, which he admitted was in an effort to “create the first reality villain.”
“It was me,” he said. “When I explained to production that I wanted to be the heel, they were elated and gave me every opportunity to run with my notorious ways. It was like getting a permission slip to do evil. My heroes growing up were Roddy Piper and Ric Flair. I got to bring all of their villainy to the world of reality TV.”
