Survivor 36

Wendell Holland's deleted 2024 post: what he actually said

On 5 January 2024 Wendell Holland posted a statement on X and later deleted it. In it he said he and his girlfriend had broken up, that he took responsibility, and that a second person also deserved an apology because he had been "dishonest about my family life" with her. He named nobody.

Admitted Holland's own words are the strongest evidence here and he is quoted directly. Everything about who the second person was is unverified, and this page does not fill that gap.

Wendell Holland Wendell Holland

What the record shows

  • Admitted Holland posted a statement on X on 5 January 2024 saying that he and his girlfriend had broken up, that he took responsibility for it, and that he was sorry to her. He deleted the post, and Parade had already quoted it.
  • Admitted In the same statement he said that "the person the internet keeps attaching me to" also deserved an apology from him, that the two got close from late November into December, and that he had been "dishonest about my family life" with her.
  • Admitted He closed by saying he had already apologised to both people privately.
  • Confirmed The statement names no second person. Holland has never publicly identified who he was writing about.
  • Unverified Fan speculation attached Dee Valladares to the post. Nothing establishes that she is the person Holland described: he did not name her, she has never publicly addressed the rumours, and no source reviewed here places the two of them together on any dated timeline.
  • Unverified The rumour is reported to have started from a bracelet visible in Instagram photos and from Instagram Stories posted by Holland's then-girlfriend. None of that has been authenticated, and no post has been produced that says what fans read into it.

What the post actually said

On 5 January 2024 Wendell Holland, who won Survivor 36 and returned for Winners at War, posted a short statement on X. He said his girlfriend and he had broken up, that he took responsibility for that, and that he was sorry to her for what had happened. He then said that the person the internet kept attaching him to also deserved an apology from him, that they got close from the end of November through December, and that he had been "dishonest about my family life" with her. He said he had apologised to both of them privately.

He deleted the post. Parade's Carly Silva had quoted it the day before it came down, and that reporting, syndicated to other outlets, is why the wording survives at all. Holland has not issued a replacement statement, and nothing here comes from a source that claims to know more than the post did.

The name that is not in it

The single most important thing about the statement is what it leaves out. Holland used the phrase "the person the internet keeps attaching me to" rather than a name. He did not identify her, and he has not identified her since.

Fans filled that in with Dee Valladares, who won Survivor 45 six weeks earlier. She has never publicly addressed the rumours. That leaves the identification resting on speculation alone, and this page will not repeat it as though it were settled. Holland admitted his own conduct. He did not make a factual claim about anybody else, and neither does this page.

Where the rumour came from

The trail described in later write-ups is thin. Fans reported noticing a bracelet in Instagram photos and read meaning into Instagram Stories posted by Holland's then-girlfriend. From there a Reddit thread gave the story a title, and the title travelled further than the evidence did.

None of that has been authenticated. No post has been produced showing what people believed they saw, and a screenshot circulating in a fan community measures reach rather than truth. Treat the origin story as an account of how a rumour spread, not as support for what it alleged.

What has never been established

Three things remain open. Who the second person in the statement is has never been stated by Holland. Whether Dee Valladares was involved has never been addressed by her, and no reporting has established it. And what anyone else knew about Holland's relationship status at the time is unknown, because the only account of the situation is his.

There is no legal proceeding, no network statement and no formal finding attached to any of this. The record is one man's deleted apology, preserved by a reporter who quoted it in time. Everything past that is inference, and the honest version of this story stops where the post stops.

People in this story

Questions people ask

What did Wendell Holland say in January 2024?
That he and his girlfriend had broken up, that he took responsibility, and that a second person he did not name also deserved an apology because he had been "dishonest about my family life" with her. He posted it on X on 5 January 2024 and later deleted it.
Did Wendell Holland date Dee Valladares?
Not established. Holland named nobody in his statement, and Dee Valladares has never publicly addressed the rumours. The connection exists in fan speculation, and no reporting reviewed here confirms a relationship between them.
Did Wendell Holland name anyone in the post?
No. He referred to "the person the internet keeps attaching me to" and left it there. He has not identified her since, so anyone asserting a name is going beyond what he said.
Where is the original post now?
Deleted. Parade quoted it on 6 January 2024, before it came down, and that report was syndicated. The quotes that circulate today come from that reporting rather than from the live post.
Was there any investigation or legal case?
No. Nothing about this involved a court, a network statement or a formal finding. It is a personal statement that one person made and then removed.

Sources

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