‘Squid Game: The Challenge’: How Did the Show’s Winner Spend the Cash Prize?
Squid Game The Challenge kept the spirit of the original series by giving a massive cash prize to its winner. But what did the winner plan to do with their earnings after the show?
How ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ winner planned on spending their cash prize
Squid Game: The Challenge had 456 contestants competing for its cash prize, which made Mai Whelan’s victory even more impressive. Whelan managed to outlast her competitors in physical and mental contests inspired by the hit Netflix show. She secured her victory by winning a game of rock-paper-sisters against one of the show’s finalists. After winning, Whelan asserted that perhaps watching her performance on the show was more difficult than actually being in it.
“I couldn’t believe I’d made that far. And it was harder to watch it because you get to see, during the interviews, what people thought of me behind the scenes. It’s like, Oh, wow, okay. To be able to advance to the next level felt good, but I didn’t feel safe enough,” she told Vulture.
Before Squid Game The Challenge, it was noted that Whelan was an immigration adjudicator at the Department of Homeland Security. Although the occupation might’ve allowed Whelan to enjoy a modest living, her cash prize would’ve been more money than she’d ever seen. Whelan stood to win $4.56 million from the reality show. But she didn’t plan on spending her new fortune on anything too lavish. She wanted to renovate her home, and hinted at using her money to make some small difference in the world.
“My heart is with people, animals, and climate change,” she once told Netflix. “If we continue what we’re doing, there won’t be a future for all the little kids growing up right now.”
How ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ winner fended off scammers
Squid Game The Challenge season 2 contestants should know it might be a while before they’re rewarded their prize. Whelan didn’t immediately receive her earnings after the show, which she was getting slightly impatient with.
“I feel like Tom Cruise in Jerry Maguire. Show me the money,” Whelan told The Times.
It didn’t help that she did a little splurging before officially winning her cash-prize. She spent more money than she was used to on a fancy dress for the Squid Game The Challenge gala. But not getting the money immediately came with an unexpected benefit. When she was presented as the winner of Squid Game: The Challenge, scammers were already trying to weasel money out of the millionaire.
“A lot of people were trying to request money from me out of nowhere. I’m bewildered by it. They know my first and last name, so I got requests from Venmo and PayPal asking, ‘Can you please pay me rent? It’s just 10 pounds. That’s it,’” she said.
But when it was revealed that Whelan wasn’t given her cash prize, the scammers disappeared.
“When I said I hadn’t received the money, it was for my benefit that I told the world I did not receive the money so they could just leave me alone,” she said.
Mai Whelan had nightmares about ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’ after winning the game
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges came after winning the grueling reality show competition. With Whelan winning much sooner than The Challenge would air on Netflix, she couldn’t let the world know she was going to be a millionaire. She was only allowed to tell one other person the good news. When Whelan returned home, her experiences in Squid Game The Challenge came through in her dreams. But she was told through a therapist that was normal after everything she’d been through.
“I had weird dreams about players and games and all that, which is common,” Whelan once told Men’s Health. “The [show’s] psychologist told me that it’s normal. Even other players had weird dreams. We were compressing our mental state, so everything was coming out in weird ways.”
