Who Is 'Survivor' Host Jeff Probst's Wife?

There are plenty of great reality TV hosts known for getting involved with the contestants and the gameplay, but no one does it quite as well as Jeff Probst. From his famous phrases like “the tribe has spoken” to his commentary during tribal council, Jeff has helped shape Survivor into a cultural phenomenon since it first began nearly 20 years ago.

Aside from loving the game and being the executive producer and host for the show, fans are wondering what Jeff’s personal life is like. Here’s what we know about his wife.

Jeff’s current wife used to be a model and actress

Survivor fans may remember when Jeff married his current wife, Lisa Ann Russell, back in 2011. People reports their ceremony was small and intimate in Los Angeles with only family and friends invited. And while Jeff manages to keep his personal life totally separate from the game he loves most, it still had fans wondering who Lisa was.

According to Heavy, Lisa was a model and actress in her younger years. She’s been credited for being on an episode of Saved of by the Bell, which is also how she met her ex-husband, Mark-Paul Gosselaar. We’re unsure how Jeff and Lisa first met, but we’re betting she’s a Survivor fan, as she still allows the host to appear on two seasons of the show per year, which equates to several months. Funnily enough, Jeff has also mentioned in interviews past that if it came down to it, he would vote Lisa off the island if they were both playing the game. “I would definitely put one of us on the jury to ensure one vote,” he said. “Because I’m 20 percent of the way there already!”

Jeff doesn’t have kids of his own, but he helps parent Lisa’s kids

As for kids, Jeff doesn’t have any that are biologically his — but there’s no doubt he loves being a parent to Lisa’s children. E! News notes during an interview with Larry King, Jeff explained that Mark-Paul and Lisa had two children together during their 20 years of marriage, and now those two kids also see Jeff as another father figure. “They had a long marriage and they raised these two young kids,” the Survivor host said. “They raised them with the kind of love that the kids they see me, and he’s now remarried, his wife, they just see us as two more parents.”

Jeff is so close to Lisa’s children that he doesn’t even like thinking about them as step-children — and the kids even call him “dad” now. “Sometimes it’d be dad, sometimes it’d be Jeff, dad two, sometimes it’d be D-2. But when we got married, when this ring went on my finger, Michael looked up and said, ‘dad,’ and I could tell that he knew now that this big thing was official and it was real,” Jeff explained of when he finally married Lisa.

As for if his kids watch Survivor, Jeff assures they don’t care at all. As he said during an interview with GQ, “But the two who don’t care? Mine. I think that means you’re being a good parent, if they see you as a parent, and not as your job.”

He was married once before, too

Jeff’s marriage with Lisa is still going strong, but he was married once before, too. Heavy reports Jeff was married to psychotherapist Shelley Wright from 1996 to 2001, and after that, fans may remember when he was dating a former Survivor contestant, July Berry.

Lisa’s marriage with Mark-Paul may not have worked out, but they seem to have figured the co-parenting things out very well for the sake of their kids. And today, Mark-Paul has also remarried, so there’s certainly no bad blood between him, Jeff, or ex-wife Lisa.

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