Colton's exit interview has been posted at Reality News Online (
here) and it is worth reading. Here is an excerpt:
RNO: Let’s jump into the topics I know people want to hear about. After the episode in which you had plenty to say about Bill, you posted to Twitter to say that your comments were ignorant and you were a 20-year-old brat, but you’ve learned that you don’t have to be funny at somebody else’s expense. How has this experience overall changed you?
Colton: It’s changed me kind of like of I said. I know my comments were ignorant. Not that this is an excuse, but I was a 20-year-old kid. I’d never been outside of my own little world. I’ve led a very sheltered, privileged life.
First of all, I think some people think I really meant what I said. There’s humor behind everything I said except some of the harsher things. Why I went there with Bill was Bill would remind us, “I’m a struggling artist. I’m a starving artist. I’m poor.” I honestly thought, “He’s going to get to the end and play that card.” It’s human nature that if there’s three people at the end and one says he really needs the money, they’ll vote for him.
Did I handle it the right way? No. Were my comments ignorant? Yes. But I never meant them as racist. When I called him ghetto trash, that wasn’t directed at his race but his level of poverty. I’m not trying to justify what I said, just explain it.
RNO: What do you say to those who doubt that there has been a real change yet, such as Monica telling me last week, “It’s an arduous process to change as much as he needs to at this point”?
Colton: The people who say I haven’t changed – people think it’s a back-and-forth thing. I don’t think you can go through that and not grow as a person. I was running that game and you can call it karma or divine intervention – I don’t think you can help but take a step back.
I was more angry when I left because I was thinking, “Why did this happen?!” But when you watch it back and see how you treated people, you really don’t get it until you watch yourself. Then it was this uncomfortable feeling about, “Oh my God.” There really is no justification for it.
Not saying he comes across as ready for sainthood, but after all, those people rarely play Survivor well.
And it turns out he didn't have appendicitis after all. (Kat can breathe easier.) It was a severe bacterial infection.
He also says that had he not gone out of the game, it was Alicia, not Christina, that they were going to target. He had already discussed it with Jonas.