Who Won Million Dollar Secret? Winner Spills Their Secrets

Netflix’s “Million Dollar Secret” just dropped its season finale and a millionaire has officially been crowned.  

The last two episodes were filled with intense challenges and stone-cold deception as the remaining players fought to stay in the running.

It all culminated in a nail-biting game of chance between finalists Samantha Hubbard, Corey Niles and Cara Kies. At the time, Cara was the millionaire — the money was reshuffled to her box at the beginning of Episode 7.

By placing first and second in the needle threading challenge, Cara and Corey secured advantages in the final game.  

As they stood in front of their respective boxes, Cara and Corey each had one turn to shuffle the contents of everyone’s box in hopes of snagging or keeping the million dollars. The catch? They couldn’t see what the other person’s move was.  

In the end, Cara, a 29-year-old In-N-Out line cook, played her cards right and opened her box to a million dollars, making her the winner of the show. 

Cara sat down with TODAY.com to talk all about her win and the moments that led up to it.  

Well, congratulations again! What have you done or are planning to do with the money?  

I plan on foremost, just helping my family. We’ve experienced back-to-back losses on so many things and never anything good.  

Just helping them, my husband, and just making sure we’re all good — that’s all I could ask for.  

Has your family been watching the show, how do they feel about it?  

They are so happy for me, they all know what a dream come true this is! My dad is getting text messages from his coworkers that would never watch Netflix and they’re all just so proud.  

How did you really prepare yourself for this experience?  

I think I honestly have been preparing myself for this for a very long time because I am such a gamer. I love “The Challenge,” “Survivor,” and “Big Brother” and I just wanted to see how I could play a game like that. When I got this opportunity I couldn’t believe it, and then I just mentally was like, I can do this, I can do this, I have to do this. 

I think just mentally preparing myself up until the second I got there, even the second I left, I just was constantly reminding myself that you got this — this is what you’ve been training yourself for all these years. 

Based off that, did you have a specific strategy coming in? 

Yes and no. Because I am such a gamer, I know how important alliances are and being aware that if you’re not in the conversation, they’re talking about you and just keeping those mental notes. But then playing this game that we’ve never seen on TV before, never have done it, and things are being thrown at us — it was nerve-wracking. 

Did you think you would be a good liar coming into this? 

I’m not a good liar in real life at all. I hate lying and that’s what I was nervous about. But when you put a million dollars in front of me, I will do whatever it takes. I’m going to be a whole different person when I lie.  

I tried to play as true to myself as I could. I played majority just as I am as a person, but when I received the million dollars I was like, OK, I have to get it together and play as hard as I can and not be different because I’ve been the same person this entire time. That’s who I am, but now there’s a lot on the line.  

You’ve got to lie, you’ve got to send some friends home that mean a lot and that definitely ate me alive. I really struggled with that, but at the end of the day, I just kept reminding myself how important this is for me and my family.  

Even Sam at the end said no one knew you were the millionaire because you had such a good poker face! 

I was surprised I had a poker face! People have told me that they could read the expressions on my face really well, so I was shocked by that. 

You successfully trusted your intuition during that conversation with Sam when she asked about your sisters and when you switched Corey’s box back to yours. How did you feel, and what was going through your head during those pivotal, game-changing moments?  

I’m a very intuitive person, I’ve always been that way since I was a kid, and I really lean into it and trust it.  

When I was sitting in the room and knowing that someone was going to get a clue about me, I just said a prayer and two things popped in my head. My middle name being Lydia, and my sisters — it just kept coming to me. I don’t know what it was, it could’ve been my brothers, you know? Something was telling me it’s my sisters.  

Sam was the first conversation I even had when I got out of the room and as soon as she asked me (how many sisters I had), the answer just flew out of my mouth because I just knew that’s what it was going to be. (Ed. note: Cara lied about how many sisters she had to throw Sam off).

Same thing with Corey, I kept my alliance close because I got to know them as people and I got to see how they lied, when they got nervous, or what they were really thinking. I built that bond with them to hopefully take me to the end but also do what it takes to win. Knowing that he knew deep down I was the millionaire, I think it’s just because I really got to know them on a different level, and it helped me in the end.

Do you still keep in touch with any of the contestants? 

Yes, I actually had an alliance with almost every single person there with maybe the exception of Sydnee. We all still keep in touch and talk a lot with each other. We are very bonded; we did this experience together and it’s beautiful. Even though things have come out about each other, we still remember we played the game and we still really care about each other.