{"id":885710,"date":"2026-09-09T13:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/885710\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T13:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:34:21","slug":"the-traitors-australia-winner-kirby-bentley-claims-victory-in-the-2026-reality-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/885710\/","title":{"rendered":"The Traitors Australia winner: Kirby Bentley claims victory in the 2026 reality show"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On Wednesday night, Kirby Bentley<\/a> was named winner of the rebooted The Traitors Australia<\/a>, claiming a prize pot of $200,600. The former Australian Survivor contestant and AFLW player was an OG Traitor who manoeuvred her way through the reality competition as her fellow Traitors \u2013 former Bachelor contestant Alex Nation, former MasterChef Australia contestant Alvin Quah and comedian Rhys Nicholson \u2013 were picked off by the Faithfuls.<\/p>\n

Called a \u201cparlour game sociopath\u201d in the final episode, Kirby had to convince The Real Housewives of Sydney\u2019s Krissy Marsh and former Bachelor contestant Keira Maguire at the fire pit that she was a Faithful. Spoiler alert: She was not! Bentley talks to national TV editor Louise Rugendyke about her victory, what makes her such a good manipulator and which competition was harder: Australian Survivor or The Traitors?<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Traitors Australia winner Kirby Bentley and host Gretel Killeen.<\/p>\n

Hello Kirby! How are you feeling now that it\u2019s all over? It looked very stressful. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s been an incredible experience. The show is just so complex that when you\u2019re watching it, you\u2019re like, \u201cThat\u2019s that\u2019s so simple, and it\u2019s so obvious\u201d, but it genuinely isn\u2019t. I\u2019m really relieved [it\u2019s over] because it\u2019s a stressful game. It was a wild ride, and they\u2019ve done an incredible job [with the edit].<\/p>\n

The show was filmed at an historic estate, Castle Claremont, in New Zealand\u2019s South Island. How long did the shoot take? <\/p>\n

It was 12 days of filming, and I think 12 days is the maximum that I probably could have lasted because the moral dilemma of the human in you starts to play a part, and I was a Traitor the whole time. And it\u2019s not a comfortable position to be in, when everyone\u2019s their authentic self as faithfuls \u2013 and we\u2019ve all got trust issues \u2013 so it\u2019s just a really bizarre experience.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

What were you thinking on that first night, when host Gretel Killeen was choosing the Traitors, and you felt her hand on your shoulder?<\/p>\n

I genuinely wasn\u2019t expecting it. I think I said to Gretel when she had asked if I wanted to be a Traitor, I was like, \u201cIf I\u2019m a Traitor, I get to play the game and move the game the way that I need to as a Survivor person\u201d, because there\u2019s a reputation – \u201cSurvivor this, Survivor that\u201d \u2013 that it has to be one of us [picked as a Traitor]. And I was like, \u201cNo, it doesn\u2019t.\u201d So when she selected me, I was so excited because if I wasn\u2019t [picked], I would have been gone pretty early.<\/p>\n

How much did being a former Survivor player affect the way you played, especially when you had so much heat on you early on?<\/p>\n

\"TheThe cast of Traitors Australia, which was made up of former reality stars.<\/p>\n

In an ideal circumstance, where you don\u2019t wear clothes that Kween Kong can hear [Kween said she could hear the rustle of Kirby\u2019s jacket when Gretel tapped her on the shoulder], I would have liked to have played a little bit lower. But I just ended up just adapting to what the game was giving. And when Kween heard it [the jacket rustle], and told people, I was like, \u201cWell, let\u2019s not let it ruminate any more. Let\u2019s just bite the bullet and get Kween gone, and we\u2019ll deal with the repercussions the next day.\u201d There\u2019s so much paranoia around Faithfuls, but it worked out a lot easier than I thought it was going to. I play a really aggressive game in Survivor, and it\u2019s really cutthroat. If anyone ever says my name, it\u2019s \u201cLet\u2019s just get them gone\u201d and create that fear. And I did the same in this, and it worked.<\/p>\n

OK, Kirby, what is it about you that makes you so cutthroat? Why do you keep getting cast in these shows? I mean, you seem pretty nice to me.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Emmy<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, there\u2019s probably there\u2019s another side of it. You don\u2019t have people second-guessing themselves without the social aspect. So my biggest strength, it comes from my upbringing. I\u2019m an Aboriginal girl. I grew up in a country town \u2013 white Australia, black Australia \u2013 I have learnt how to navigate those worlds, especially now as an adult in the corporate space.<\/p>\n

But when I\u2019m playing these games, I want to connect on your level. I want to know who you are on your personal level, and make you feel safe to be around me, and it\u2019s all genuine. That way, then I know how to navigate myself around you if you decide to turn on me. I think Claudia said it at one stage, and it didn\u2019t make the cut, but she said, \u201cI think you\u2019re a Traitor\u201d and I was like, \u201cI actually think you are as well. And these are my reasonings\u201d. I\u2019m laying it all out. So if I can address the person directly in a respectful way, it doesn\u2019t hit the same as manipulation. Because I\u2019m not trying to manipulate. I\u2019m just leaning into you as a human.<\/p>\n

\"KirbyKirby Bentley hugs fellow contestant Keira Maguire after Bentley revealed she was a Traitor.<\/p>\n

Have you had people in your job or your family who are watching this and are now just going, \u201cKirby, can we trust anything you say or do?\u201d <\/p>\n

A lot of the people who know who I genuinely am at my core, know that I was a prankster. I had to have a safe word, and it was \u201chonest\u201d. Like if I say \u201chonest\u201d, I would never lie. But in my real world, I don\u2019t like liars. I like my space to be safe. I like to know who the people around me are as well. So, it\u2019s a very different world that I walk in my real life. And these games, it\u2019s just like football. You step over that white line, and your best friend can give you the biggest hit or tackle or whatever, and it\u2019s not personal. We step back over that line, and we\u2019re still mates. We\u2019re just representing our jumpers under a set of rules. So it\u2019s the same sort of concept.<\/p>\n

\"GretelGretel Killeen with Rhys Nicholson, who was eventually recruited by Kirby Bentley to be a Traitor.<\/p>\n

You recruited Rhys as a Traitor, but in those last couple of episodes, things became quite tense between you \u2013 you wrote their name down twice! \u2013 what\u2019s your relationship with Rhys like now?<\/p>\n

Nothing\u2019s personal. Like in those moments, we are exhausted. I\u2019ve been an OG Traitor from the start, and it hasn\u2019t been easy. The heat\u2019s been on me the entire game, so I\u2019m trying to make decisions that \u2013 because I would have happily gone to the end with Rhys \u2013 and there were times where Keira and Krissy were off Rhys, so I was like, \u201cOK, cool, we can make this happen.\u201d But then when they [Keira and Krissy] were back on them [Rhys], I was like, \u201cWell, I need to make this happen for me because that\u2019s what the game is about.\u201d So it was very conflicting. I would like to think that Rhys is in my life forever, and I think a lot of our cast, if not nearly all of our cast, feel the same about each other because it\u2019s just such a unique experience.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Dr<\/a><\/p>\n

How much research did you do? Because it seemed like some contestants knew how to play the game but others (looking at you, Dicko!) seemed to think they were playing Survivor.<\/p>\n

I made a point of watching them all [the international versions of The Traitors] just to be able to see if there are any patterns or styles of how to work your way through. And there is no formula. I think the complexities around it are personalities, experiences, exposure, pressure. All of those variables play a huge part in it. So you need to be adaptable, which is why your social game comes into play. So when you\u2019re a safe person, when people freak out, they come back to you and they lean on you. I learnt that at a young age. But it works, and it\u2019s worked really well for me in all the games that I\u2019ve played.<\/p>\n

\"KirbyKirby Bentley (second from right) with the Australian cast of\u00a0Survivor: Australia v The World (from left) George Mladenov, Janine Allis, Luke Toki, Sarah Tilleke, David Genat and Shonee Bowtell.<\/p>\n

What was more difficult, Survivor or Traitors?<\/p>\n

Traitors. But it\u2019s different. I could easily sit on an island for 47 days, and there\u2019s an element of trust and safety in your alliances, and you know what that looks like to a certain point. In this, as a Traitor, you don\u2019t know if the Faithfuls are telling you the full truth, and they don\u2019t even know what their full truth is. I don\u2019t know if I could play as a Faithful in this game. It was hard enough as a Traitor, but they [Faithfuls] have no answers. There\u2019s no such thing as evidence. It messes with your head on a different level.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"What<\/a><\/p>\n

You have to choose between Survivor All Stars and Traitors All Stars \u2013 what do you pick?<\/p>\n

Oh, I\u2019ve always said I would do a Survivor All Stars. But I think I need a break from it because I don\u2019t think anyone would trust me anyway, and I wouldn\u2019t last. The only reason I would do Traitors is if we were all returning Traitor players, and if it was a world one, so or like UK, US, Oz, all came together with Gretel hosting.<\/p>\n

Well, I just hope everyone in your office is nice to you when you walk back in tomorrow morning…<\/p>\n

Yeah, we\u2019ll have to regroup, do a team building and an honesty and trust game [laughing]. We will figure it out!<\/p>\n

The Traitors Australia is now streaming on 10Play.<\/p>\n

Want more TV? We\u2019ve got you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":885711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-885710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=885710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/885710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/885711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=885710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=885710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=885710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}