“Boston” Rob Mariano isn’t sure whether his wife of nearly 20 years would be a Faithful or a Traitor.
Speaking with PEOPLE exclusively about his time on Peacock’s hit series The Traitors, the reality star goes back and forth about how his lifelong alliance member Amber Mariano would do if she were thrown into the Scottish castle.
“Every time I think about this, my decision’s completely changed,” Rob, 49, says. “At first I was like, ‘For sure she would not do well as a Traitor. She would have to be a Faithful.’ And then the more I thought about it I was like, ‘Man, but it would be good because nobody would suspect her if she was a Traitor… So now I’m thinking, 100% she could be a Traitor. But I’d see her as a Faithful, too.”
Sadly for viewers, we likely won’t get to see Amber on the series. Despite her success as the winner of Survivor: All-Stars in 2003 — where she and Rob fell in love — and her return to the competition series for its milestone 40th season (Winners at War), Rob insists she’s retired from reality TV.
“She’s had enough,” says Rob, who shares Lucia, 15, Karina, 14. Isa, 13 and Adelina, 10 with Amber. “She went back on Survivor 40 because I was like, ‘Listen, Survivor’s given us our whole lives. We have to go do this.’ But she didn’t want to go, so I promised her I wouldn’t make her do any more.”
Below, Rob opens up to PEOPLE about his experience on The Traitors, including who he blames for his downfall (spoiler alert: it’s himself).
PEOPLE: It was so fun to watch you on The Traitors. You didn’t make it to the end, but how the experience for you?
ROB MARIANO: I had an awesome time. Yeah. It was so much fun.
Because of all your success on Survivor, you come into these competition shows with a big target on your back from the get-go. Do you sign up for these things knowing that’s going to be the case?
Yeah, and it is. And it’s like, they made the target even bigger on The Traitors with the twists and how they wanted to start it and whatever. But I’m the type of person that I’m going to have the target regardless. So if we’re going to put some pressure on, let’s put a lot of pressure because that’s when I do my best work. It’s going to force me to play harder and more aggressive and do what I have to do. At the end of the day, I might not be there until the end, but we’re going to have some fun. And we’re going to get a good TV show out of it.
Well that you did. Taking down Bob the Drag Queen was epic television. But do you regret that, seeing how it sort of got a lot of people looking at you sideways?
Absolutely not. I don’t regret it. I mean, I could have done it maybe an episode or two later, but the problem is after I opened my mouth and started saying it, I had to execute on that. You know what I mean? Because I can’t put the words back. Everybody knows it. And truthfully, that round table was going to be either to Ciara [Miller] or Nikki [Garcia], and I kind of steered it back to Bob.
You put the blame on Bob for bringing up your name in the first place.
It was completely Bob’s fault! Bob’s so smart and he’s such a good player. He was running the show with the Traitors and was playing the Faithfuls side as good. And he is, he just didn’t account for one thing. And that is the fact that I was able to pick up on exactly what he was doing.
How did you figure it out?
In the episode before that episode, he tried to put Carolyn [Wiger] in the coffin and that was the first red flag. It’s like, ‘Why would you put suspicion on another Traitor? I know you’re smart enough to know that, Bob.’ I know he knew Danielle [Reyes] was going along with it, but I was the one that stood up. Carolyn wasn’t in there, and I kept her out of there. And then at the very next one, indirectly, he says, ‘Yeah, we got to look at the cage people.’ I was like, ‘Now you’re doing it to me, bro?’ I was like, ‘Uh-uh, not going there.’
It’s funny, because before that, you were sort of taking a back seat to Bob.
I was fully letting him drive before that! Especially with the Jeremy [Collins] murder. I didn’t want to kill Jeremy, but I let it happen. I let him have that and I let them do it. But once he was coming at me, I couldn’t. I had to steer my ship in my direction.
Were you surprised at how quickly things between Danielle and Carolyn devolved? It really felt like no one way on the same page.
So really, it’s kind of my fault. Because of what happened with Bob, there’s a chain reaction of events. Even though I told them before that I was going to do it, they didn’t feel like they were active participants in it. So all of a sudden, it instills fear in them.
Did you know Danielle and Carolyn before The Traitors?
Danielle, we may have met before, but I didn’t know her. I don’t know her history on Big Brother or anything. But I could read her body language that she never, from the beginning, wanted anything to do with me. She saw me as someone she could win a trophy from if she got rid of me. And from her point of view, after I got rid of Bob, she was left with me and Carolyn and the two of us, we’re both from the same show. So she assumed the Survivor players were going to gang up on her. But I didn’t know Carolyn either!
And Carolyn really didn’t trust you!
Oh no, Carolyn knew my reputation from Survivor. She didn’t want to be the person who didn’t stand up and take charge of herself. So I can see that through all of their eyes and understand why the chaos ensued.
At the same time, there were Faithfuls who were on your side and definitely did not think for one second that you were a Traitor.
Yeah, I mean I had a good relationship with Dylan [Efron]. I felt like I had him. They didn’t show it, but Chrishell [Stause], Nikki and I worked really well in the statue challenge and we became pretty friendly. We were on the same page. I didn’t want to kill Nikki, but everybody was going that way so I did it.
You and Ciara seemed close, too?
We were. We bonded because when she was put in the coffin, she thought she was trying to be framed. So she bought everything I was saying about Derrick [Levasseur], She was smart. I mean, I was lying, but she was smart to think that because she saw the other level to it. It’s just kind of ironic because Tom [Sandoval] didn’t see that and that was my undoing.
It’s just strange that Danielle and Carolyn didn’t align closer with you, especially after seeing your gameplay over the years. You’re actually a very loyal person, and you always protect your alliances — even if you have to backstab them in the end to win the dough.
Absolutely. My people are my people and I will protect them until I can’t anymore. And that’s why I think Carolyn and I couldn’t get on the same page — she didn’t know she was my people! It’s kind of my fault that she didn’t; I have the introspection to be able to see that internally and through her eyes, where a lot of players can’t. But I was never going to turn on Carolyn. My people are my people and I will go to bat for them, until I can’t anymore.
So who do you want to win it all? A Traitor or a Faithful?
Both! I’m rooting for Dylan and even though we didn’t work together, I’m rooting for Carolyn.
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The Traitors is streaming on Peacock, with new episodes dropping Thursday evenings.
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