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Squid Game The Challenge Winner Still Hasn't Gotten Her $4.56M Prize
"I feel like Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire," Mai said. "She me the money!"
The first season of Squid Game: The Challenge may have ended in February, but winner Mai Whelan still hasn't seen a dime of her $4.56 million prize.
The fierce competitor beat out 455 competitors on the Netflix show based on the South Korean thriller series that took the world by storm in 2021.
"I feel like Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire," Whelan told The Times. "Show me the money!"
The competition-based reality show ended 10 months ago, but the finale episode only aired on Netflix on December 6, which may account for the delay in the 55-year-old immigration adjudicator's enormous payday.
After 16 intense days of filming, Whelan's win finally came down to a game of rock, paper, and scissors against fellow competitor Phill Cain. A source close to production told People that the winner knew she would only receive the prize fund once the season one finale aired.
While Whelan may not have a bank account brimming with Netflix money, she already splurged on a new haircut, Ralph Lauren dress, and Jimmy Choo shoes for a Squid Game event, according to The Times. "I still have buyer's remorse from that, but I think it's well-deserved," she said.
Whalen has plans to give some of her winnings to charity and buy a home in a retirement community. "We don't know where yet, and we are happy with where we are," she explained. "We live on the water. It's very peaceful."
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Whelan explained that her charitable plans include "sponsoring kids receiving education and helping the elderly with their basic needs and health care. And also the wildlife and the climate."
"I think those are very important to how we see the world so that way we can live in it and enjoy it for everybody, not just us at the present moment," she shared.
Squid Game: The Challenge is now streaming in full on Netflix.
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Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
Ariel Messman-Rucker is an Oakland-born journalist who now calls the Pacific Northwest her home. When she’s not writing about politics and queer pop culture, she can be found reading, hiking, or talking about horror movies with the Zombie Grrlz Horror Podcast Network.
