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RUPERT & FAMILY
Want real romance and not reality romance? That would be Rupert and Laura Boneham, married seven years and going strong. The most popular player ever (at press time he was the favorite to win the viewer-voted second $1 million prize), Rupert, 40, met Laura, 35, "when I was managing a comedy club and looking for an assistant manager of guest relations," he says. "She was the only one who stuck around after finding out it was an usher's job." Laura fell for the big guy because "his eyes would make me melt," she says. "Everyone would go to him with their problems, and I admired that. He was like Ann Landers."That is, if Ann Landers weighed 250 lbs. "When I finished All-Stars I was under 200 lbs.," says Rupert, who has since gained back about 20 lbs. and quite easily at that (pork chops, steak and french fries are particular favorites). Even Laura got the chance to sample the Survivor diet when she bravely munched on bugs during an All-Stars rewards challenge in hopes of spending a night with her husband (she lost; he cried). Being away from Laura and their daughter Raya, 5, for months at a time "tore me up," says Rupert, a contestant on two consecutive seasons. "When I came home from the first season I said, 'My God, I'm never leaving you guys again.' A week later Survivor called me again. That second time was much harder on the family" – and particularly on young Raya. "She has a little bit of separation anxiety now," says Rupert. "We're working on that."
A counselor to troubled teens, "I have been making only $18,000 or $20,000 a year for a long time," says Rupert, who if he wins the second million (his competition, he figures, is ex-Marine Rudy Boesch) will donate a healthy chunk to his nonprofit group, Kids Help. "And," he says, "I'll finally be able to afford medical insurance." Another priority: moving his family to a safer neighborhood in Indianapolis, where they now live in a three-bedroom colonial fixer-upper with pet alligator Wally (he stays in an indoor pond in the living room).
In discussions to host an adventure show on Animal Planet, Rupert is figuring out how to handle his fame. Step one: Change shirts. "If I wear tie-dye," he says, "I'm mobbed." Laura is also learning the ropes. "Women are always running up to Rupert saying, 'I love you!' " she says. "You get pushed aside." But if the Survivor experience tested their love, so, too, did it deepen their bond. "The game stripped Rupert of everything and brought him to what's important," says Laura. "It's not the money. It's your family."
• By ALEX TRESNIOWSKI and TOM GLIATTO. CYNTHIA WANG, AMY BONAWITZ, ALEXIS CHIU, MARK DAGOSTINO, JOANNE FOWLER and CAROLINE HOWARD
