LEE COUNTY, Fla. — Four-and-a-half years ago, Claire Sattler was a senior at Bishop Verot High School when she won the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament.
Claire should have been on top of the world. But instead, she was dealing with some serious backlash.
Claire explained, “There was a lot of negative reaction from the internet. A lot of cyberbullying, a lot of very hateful comments.”
In fact, Claire recently posted to her TikTok account about the horrific rumors and things said about her on the internet.
“There was just a lot of very hateful words about myself all over social media. There were conspiracy theories, about like the fact that I had been intimate with Alex Trebek in order to get answers to the show, and I was 16 years old, and that was horrifying,” Claire said. “There were a lot of really vitriolic language towards me that really just cut deep as a 16-year-old and very self-conscious about everything.”
But despite all that, Claire says there was no doubt she wanted to return for the “High School Reunion Tournament.”
“The actual experience there was so wonderful and life-changing, and seeing all those people, like some of those contestants are my best friends in the whole world,” added Claire. “Like we’ve kept in really close touch, and I would not pass up an opportunity to see them in person again.”
And said she’s ready to show the world who she’s become.
“I’ve had four-and-a-half years of personal growth, learned a lot about myself in college, who I am, what I value, and why I should just be who I am, and so I came back to the show this time and said, ‘no I’m going to be myself,’” added Claire.
Now a senior at Yale University, Claire majored in Molecular and Developmental Biology as well as Theater and Performance Studies and says her ultimate dream is to break into the comedy industry.
She said, “I do sketch comedy and standup comedy. I’ve written a lot of comedy plays and comedy screenplays, so I’d really like to break into that industry. But in the meantime, I do have a Biology degree, and so I’ll probably be working in like in a research lab as a lab tech, keep my options open in science, while also trying to pursue a career in entertainment.”
You can catch Claire Sattler right now on NBC2 in the Jeopardy! High School Reunion Tournament as she competes for a chance at $100,000. The tournament runs through March 9.
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