‘Survivor’ Richard Hatch Blames His Sexuality On Prison Sentence
Richard Hatch was a Survivor legend. He was the first-ever Survivor winner in its premiere season in 2000. While this means he has a spot in history for the performance, he is known for something more notorious. Hatch spent 51 months in prison after his time on the reality competition series. He is now blaming his prison term on discrimination.
Here is what Hatch is now saying about his time in prison.
Richard Hatch Faced Legal Problems After Survivor
Richard Hatch was a legend on Survivor because he was the first to win the show. He then used that to add more reality TV credits, including Survivor All-Stars, The Apprentice 11, and The Biggest Loser: Temptation Nation.
Richard was 39 when he won Survivor. He took the opportunity in the series to come out as gay to the world as well as to people who knew him but didn’t know his sexual preference. He won it all and took home the $1 million prize after a 4-3 Tribal Council vote.
The year after appearing on Survivor, he was convicted of a domestic assault charge after his former partner, Glenn Boyanowski, accused him of assault. Richard said that Glenn trespassed but was still found guilty and served one year of probation. He appealed and had his conviction overturned.
However, the bad news came in 2005. This is when a grand jury indicted him for two counts of tax evasion, including filing a false tax return, two counts of wire fraud, four counts of mail fraud, and one count of bank fraud. He was acquitted of fraud but found guilty of the other charges because he reportedly failed to report about $1.4 million in income.
He received a 51-month prison sentence with an “obstruction of justice” charge added to the other charges.
Richard Hatch Speaks Out About Prison Time
Richard now says there was more to his prison sentence than his conviction of these tax crimes. “Well, it devastated my life, frankly. I didn’t anticipate it. It’s the reason I was prosecuted,” he said in a new interview (via Daily Beast).
Hatch said that his court case was full of homophobia from prospective jurors. He claims that some of the jurors referred to him as a “homo,” “a queer,” and “a f**.” He said he was prosecuted because “the judge [was] refusing to even let us question jurors about it. I mean, it was crazy that that happened.”
In 2024, Richard Hatch made his big return to reality TV as part of House of Villains 2, which premiered on October 9 on E! TV.
What are your thoughts on Richard Hatch’s allegations that his sexuality was why he was found guilty of his tax crimes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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