Survivor: All-Stars

Why Sue Hawk quit Survivor: All-Stars

Susan Hawk quit Survivor: All-Stars at Tribal Council in the episode aired 4 March 2004, after an immunity challenge Richard Hatch competed in nude. Hawk said the contact was intentional. Hatch said the two saw it differently. No charge, lawsuit or settlement followed, and Hawk said they simply talked it through.

Disputed The challenge, the quit and the legal outcome are documented. What the contact was and what it meant is a dispute between two people that no court, network or investigation has ever settled.

Susan Hawk Susan Hawk Richard Hatch Richard Hatch

What the record shows

  • Confirmed Richard Hatch competed nude in a balance-beam immunity challenge on Survivor: All-Stars in 2004.
  • Confirmed Susan Hawk quit at Tribal Council in the episode aired 4 March 2004. Because she left the game there, that episode ran with no immunity challenge and no vote at all.
  • Confirmed The season record puts Hawk's departure on Day 17.
  • Confirmed Hawk told TV Guide on 9 March 2004 that "my mental health was more important than that million bucks."
  • Confirmed Hawk considered legal action and did not pursue it. CBS and Mark Burnett arranged a conversation between her and Hatch. Asked whether there had been a settlement, she said, "No, we just talked through it."
  • Confirmed No charge, no complaint, no civil claim, no settlement and no finding by any court or network has ever followed. That is the final disposition.
  • Disputed Hawk told CBS News in March 2004 that she "did not appreciate what I felt was an intentional move against me with his private area."
  • Disputed Hatch said in the same period that he had not appreciated what "from my perspective, was her kind of taunting me," and said that he and Hawk had worked it out and see it from two different perspectives.
  • Unverified A stronger phrasing, in which Hawk is said to have described being sexually violated, circulates in later headlines and summaries. No March 2004 source carrying that wording has been located, so this page does not put it in her mouth.
  • Unverified The physical detail of the contact is not established by anything beyond what each of them said about it. Fan wikis and clip compilations describe it in far more specific terms than any checkable contemporaneous source, and Hatch disputed the account, so those terms are not repeated here.
  • Unverified Fan summaries often place Hatch's vote-out immediately before Hawk's exit. Nothing in the checkable record supports that ordering.

What is actually on the record

Two things about this are not in dispute. Richard Hatch competed nude in a balance-beam immunity challenge on Survivor: All-Stars in 2004, and Susan Hawk quit the game at the next Tribal Council, in the episode aired 4 March 2004. Because she left the game there, that episode ran with no immunity challenge and no vote at all, which almost nothing else in the show's run can say. The season record puts her departure on Day 17.

The third undisputed thing is the legal outcome, and it is the part most write-ups skip. Nothing was ever filed. No charge, no complaint, no civil claim, no settlement, and no finding by CBS or by any court. Hawk looked at legal action and said publicly that she chose not to take it.

What Hawk said, and what Hatch said

Both of them spoke in the first ten days of March 2004. Hawk told CBS News that she "did not appreciate what I felt was an intentional move against me with his private area." She described feeling humiliated and dehumanized, and on 9 March she told TV Guide that "my mental health was more important than that million bucks."

Hatch disputed her reading of the moment. Speaking to CBS News in the same period, he said he had not appreciated what "from my perspective, was her kind of taunting me," and said that he and Hawk had worked it out and that they see it from two different perspectives. Those are two accounts of the same few seconds, and no third party has ever ruled on which one is right. That is why every characterization on this page is tied to the person who made it.

Did Sue Hawk sue Richard Hatch?

No. It is the question people search most often about this incident, and the answer is short. Hawk considered legal action and did not file. She told TV Guide that CBS and Mark Burnett arranged a conversation between her and Hatch, and that afterwards "we've come to terms with each other, and we'll move forward from there." Asked directly whether there had been a settlement, she said, "No, we just talked through it."

So there is no case number, no complaint, no settlement figure and no ruling to look up. Anyone describing what a court or an investigation concluded here is describing something that does not exist.

What is still unsettled, and why the wording matters

A stronger quote circulates widely, in which Hawk is said to have described being sexually violated. That phrasing shows up in later headlines and roundups. The wording that can be checked against a March 2004 source is the CBS News line quoted above, so that is the one used here.

The physical detail is the other gap. Fan wikis and clip compilations describe the contact in specific terms that go well past anything a checkable source establishes, and Hatch disputed the account, so this page does not repeat them. One more common error is worth naming: fan summaries often place Hatch's vote-out immediately before Hawk's exit, and nothing in the checkable record supports that ordering.

People in this story

Questions people ask

Why did Sue Hawk quit Survivor: All-Stars?
She quit at Tribal Council in the episode aired 4 March 2004, after an immunity challenge Richard Hatch competed in nude. She said the contact was intentional and that she felt humiliated and dehumanized. Hatch said the two saw the moment differently.
Did Sue Hawk sue Richard Hatch?
No. She considered legal action and did not file. CBS and Mark Burnett arranged a conversation between the two. Asked whether there had been a settlement, she said, "No, we just talked through it."
Was Richard Hatch ever charged over the incident?
No. No charge, complaint or civil claim over this incident has ever been verified, and neither a court nor the network made any finding. The dispute has never been adjudicated by anyone.
What did Richard Hatch say about it?
He disputed Hawk's reading of the moment, saying he had not appreciated what "from my perspective, was her kind of taunting me," and that the two had worked it out and see it from two different perspectives.
Was there a vote in the episode where Sue Hawk quit?
No. She left the game at Tribal Council in the episode aired 4 March 2004, and that episode ran with no immunity challenge and no vote at all.

Sources

Checked on 2026-07-26. If something here is wrong or out of date, we want to know: get in touch.