Ousted beauty queen Krista Klumpp has denied claims of a Survivor love spat between her and an opposing competitor over her Redemption Island buddy Matt Elrod.

A tearful Klumpp, who was eliminated by her Zapatera tribe mates as punishment for aligning herself with notorious rogue Russell Hantz, spent several days on Redemption Island alone with Elrod before he eliminated her in their duel.

Before leaving she was seen gifting her bible to Elrod - something which seemed to cause jealousy with Elrod's Ometepe team mate Andrea Boehlke, a close friend of Elrod's who was watching on and openly questioned their alliance.

Klumpp, a 25-year-old South Carolina beauty queen, says there was no romance between her and Elrod - but she admitted the pair bonded over their faith.

"It seems from the show that (Andrea) might have been a little concerned with our relationship but hopefully if Matt gets a chance to come back into the game that won't affect him too much and she'll still trust him because he's gonna need as much help as possible," she told Stuff.co.nz.

"I didn't get a chance to meet Andrea. I got the view at the same time as all of y'all did."

She hadn't had a chance to explain to Boehlke that there was nothing going on between them because of her elimination, but she admitted she had become a big fan of Elrod's and wanted him to win.

"Anyone else without his strength or his drive wouldn't be able to make it that long. It's hard to portray on TV what he's actually going through being by himself. He's proven to be an amazing competitor, especially with his strengths and beliefs. I think he's going to be intimidating to some."

Klumpp also said she saw another side to Hantz, an infamous Survivor villain who Zapatera considered so dangerous they threw a challenge just to eliminate him.

"The way that Russell is portrayed on television is an accurate way of how he plays the game. He takes it very seriously (and) does whatever he can to get to the end at all cost," she said.

"I appreciate that, but I saw a different side to him. Everything he was telling me was very accurate and honest. There were a lot of things that I got to see that a lot of people don't see about Russell that I trusted."

Like Elrod, Klumpp said she bonded with Hantz over their religion.

"One of our first conversations was about our faith. That's where our relationship started and our alliance started with him thinking that he could really trust me. We are both from the south, we were raised a lot alike and we share a lot of similarities."

She criticised her tribe for eliminating Hantz so soon.

"That was the first and worst move they could have made," she said. "If you want to get rid of him, at least use him until he's disposable. I don't think they thought about it like that. They were just wanting to be comfortable.

"I'm not saying Russell is the easiest person to get along with but he has so much of an advantage to help us out, and an advantage over the others especially since they had Rob (Mariano)."

Survivor screens on TV3 every Wednesday at 7.30pm. Stuff will interview every contestant as they are eliminated.

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- © Fairfax NZ News

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