At a glance…
- Actress and Australian Survivor winner Pia Miranda and Boost Juice founder Janine Allis formed an unlikely friendship while competing on the 2019 season of the reality show.
- Seven years later, their bond is stronger than ever, with both women crediting their friendship for changing how they see themselves and approach life.
- Pia and Janine join host Tiffany Dunk on The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories podcast to reflect on their time on Survivor, finding friendship in midlife and why they hope to grow old together.
The first complete season of Australian Survivor that I watched was arguably the most electric. It introduced Australia to the Golden God, aka its new host, David Genat, and introduced Pia Miranda, actress and the season’s ultimate winner, to her best friend and Boost Juice founder, Janine Allis.
“It was the very first day, and we really knew we were best friends,” Pia says on an episode of The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories podcast.
Listen to the episode:
Pia and Janine join Love Stories host Tiffany Dunk to discuss their friendship’s love language and how, despite meeting on a show that pitted them against one another, they formed a strong alliance that outlived their time on the show. The two women had different motivations for joining the show. Janine wanted an adventure, but Pia was there to win.
“I’m such a Survivor nerd, I’m like, ‘There is no way I’m going to go play and not try to win, and I will burn down everyone in my path if that’s what it takes,'” she tells Tiffany. But meeting Janine changed her perspective.
“I really did not want to make a best friend out there, because I really wanted to play to win. Sometimes you can meet someone who helps you find your strength, and I think Janine definitely did that for me.”
They became allies in the game. However, anyone who watches Survivor will tell you alliances are always temporary. Surprisingly, it was an elimination plan that truly cemented their actual friendship.
“It was the day that you told me you were trying to vote me out, and then I called you, and I swore at you, and I was like, ‘You effing bobba.’ And then we laughed and laughed and laughed, and that was it. From then on we were bonded for life,” Pia laughs.
“At the start it’s like it’s anyone but me, and we were voting someone else out, and at the last minute, everyone said, ‘It’s Pia.’ And I went, ‘Oh, shit, okay, as long as it’s not me,'” Janine remembers.
“We were bonded from that point,” Pia says. “There was never a question in my mind that we were going to turn on each other.”
The physical and emotional intimacy of living together in such extreme conditions definitely tested them as humans, but it also strengthened their friendship.
“No phones, no TV, we had no distractions, and we are constantly surprised by how we still have things to talk about,” Pia says.
“We actually slept together every single night in each other’s arms… I know that sounds romantic, but it was mainly body heat,” Janine adds.
Yet, while the conditions forced them into close quarters, it was their emotional connection that helped them outlast their fellow contestants. Pia recalls one particular moment in the shelter when the pair began discussing something deeply personal. With microphones recording their every conversation, she made an unusual request of the sound crew.
“I said to the sound guy, ‘We’re having a really, really deep conversation, and could you just leave us alone for 10 minutes?’ And he kindly did.”
It was then that Pia realised their connection extended far beyond the game they were playing.
“It was that moment that I was like, ‘This is a really deep friendship.’ Because we had a really deep back and forth about something very private, and I just knew from that point, I went, ‘This is more than just a showmance. This is actually a lifelong friendship.’ Like, you know when you feel your hearts connect? That was it.”
It’s particularly remarkable considering Survivor is a game built on outplaying, aka manipulating your fellow castaways. Trusting another contestant completely is almost unheard of, particularly when there’s a substantial cash prize of $500,000 at stake.
“You’re my North Star,” Janine tells Pia. “I could cheat on anyone, lie to anyone, but I would never lie to her.”
Pia agrees that their friendship changed her understanding of trust.
“That thing of trusting someone in such an environment that is built on absolute zero trust has definitely shifted just how much I can trust and how secure I can feel with someone. It’s a very rare thing.”
And although Pia ultimately took home the title of Sole Survivor, Janine insists the result was never going to come between them.
“It wouldn’t have mattered, as long as one of us won,” she says. “It’s a game, ultimately. And I think both of us actually realised it was a game.”
For Pia, the greatest reward of her Survivor experience wasn’t necessarily winning the competition. It was finding someone who helped her recognise her own strength.
“Jay always sees the good in me, and I always see the good in Jay, and that helps you see the good in yourself. So I 100% think that I like myself more from knowing her.”
“Pia makes me the best version of myself,” she says. “To have your job as a friend is to make the best version you possibly can of that friend and vice versa, and that is true friendship and true love.”
Life-changing friendships aren’t reserved for our school years or early adulthood, and these ladies prove it. Both women had established careers, families and friendship circles when they met. Neither was necessarily looking for another best friend.
“I didn’t think I would find a new friendship that would be so much a part of my everyday life,” Pia reflects. And although the pair live in different states, their connection hasn’t diminished with distance. They speak almost constantly, regularly holiday together and turn to each other for everything from parenting advice to career decisions.
In fact, Pia has even programmed her phone to recognise Janine as her wife.
“I say, ‘Call my wife,’ and it calls Jay,” she laughs.
While Survivor brought them together, these days the game rarely features in their conversations. The friendship has long since become something much bigger than the television show where it began.
“Now our friendship isn’t about Survivor, it’s just about us,” Pia says. And when Tiffany asks what they hope their friendship will look like in another 10 or 20 years, Pia’s answer is simple.
“I just hope we get to grow old together. That’s it.”
“It’s not even a hope, because hope means that there’d be a doubt,” Janine adds. “This is a friendship to the end. And beyond, maybe.”
Watch the episode:
Listen to The Australian Women’s Weekly Love Stories podcast wherever you get your podcasts. Watch full episodes on YouTube now.
Recipe of the Year, the new ABC cooking series with Pia Miranda and Adam Liaw, is coming to ABC and ABC iView.
