Survivor winner Matthew Haywood: My aim was to be the comfort blanket

Survivor winner Matthew Haywood has said his strategy on the show was to be everyone’s “comfort blanket” as he spoke of the mental challenges he faced.

The 21-year-old former hospitality worker from Cumbria became the youngest winner of the UK edition of the reality competition after surviving on the tropical island for 34 days.

Haywood revealed he only told his mother, father and brother that he had won so he could watch his family and friends be in “complete shock” when he was crowned during Saturday’s final.

He told the PA news agency: “It was really emotional but it was also so happy… We didn’t even get to watch the last part of the show, the second my name was announced everyone jumped up, everyone was grabbing me.

“My friends, they were crying their eyes out, it got to my heart and then we continued to party all night.”

Haywood admitted he did find it “weird” adjusting back to everyday life after competing in the competition.

“It was an intense experience in a different climate, different challenges every day. I was waking up in the morning thinking: ‘Where’s the challenges?'” he said.

“I think when you’re away you definitely realise what you’ve missed in the real world and what actually means something to me so it was really nice to come back and value my life a lot more than I maybe did.”

Reflecting on his time on the series, he feels the other contestants underestimated him due to him being the youngest on the show, which he said he used to his advantage.

He said: “My main aim was to be the comfort blanket that everyone wanted because when you’ve got nothing when you’re on the desert island, you’re not going to throw away your comfort blanket when it’s already really uncomfortable there.

“I was doing a lot of heavy ground work, even stuff you don’t maybe see on the show, I was 24/7 working on and building big relationships and using psychology.

“I was talking to people about their families, and these were real relationships… I was trying to be a safe space that people could come and talk to and be genuine.

“But I also used that to build connections that wouldn’t want to get rid of me. I feel like I was a value to people in there.

“There was maybe bigger physical values around camp, I wasn’t really into building the shelter, I wasn’t good at any of that, but definitely psychologically and socially, I think I played the game perfect.”

Throughout the competition, the contestants had to complete a series of mentally and physically demanding challenges.

One of the final tasks saw the remaining four players have to stand on narrow pegs while they had one hand on an idol and another on a ring for hours.

Haywood said the show was “definitely more mentally challenging them physically”, adding: “I think being being able to control my mentality in there was definitely essential to getting to the end and winning.

“The challenges are one thing where you have to really stay in your head and do things to distract your mind and realise that this isn’t forever.”

He added: “I really sympathise with people and I feel their emotions, so voting people out for me was hard at first. But there’s a point where you know that you need to do it to survive, because ultimately these people are also there to win and they’ll do it.

“It’s eat or be eaten and I was so hungry in there.”

Despite the challenges, he said he would “do anything to be back on the island” as he felt it was a life-changing experience.

After spending some of his £100,000 prize pot on travelling and a new guitar, he plans to use the funds to push his career in the entertainment world forward after discovering he has a “real passion” for it while on the show.

Haywood said: “I’ve always absolutely loved performing, I’ve loved music. I’ve had a lot of messages (from) young people and they’ve said: ‘You’ve inspired me to do this and to never underestimate myself because of my age’, so definitely I’m going to my local school to do talks.

“I’ve always loved presenting, so kids’ TV, that’s definitely a route I’d love to go down, so we’ll see what what comes in the new year.”