Ask any longtime Survivor fans for the most memorable moments in the show’s nearly fifty seasons, and chances are they won’t rip through many before they get to Jonny Fairplay’s infamous dead grandmother. During Pearl Islands, the show’s beloved seventh season, Fairplay tricked his fellow contestants and even host Jeff Probst into thinking his grandma, Ellen Jean Hauser, had passed away. The other players intentionally let him win a reward challenge and poured sympathy onto the reality show villain, but he later revealed it was all an elaborate hoax to help him get further in the game.

Viewers were absolutely outraged (and still are), but his real life grandmother, Ellen Jean Hauser, couldn’t get enough. She leaned into the public backlash, doing appearances with her grandson and even getting a custom license plate that read “DEAD GMA.” She quite obviously loved every second and proved to be every bit the memorable character as her villainous grandson, a quality that extended to her personal life which apparently included seven husbands and affairs/ flings with actor Robert Goulet and country music star Faron Young. She also made her own appearance on the Survivor reunion show…