It was 1:36am local Panama time on Aug. 10 when David Genat won $5.8 million dollars on the season finale of Deal or No Deal Island — the most money ever given away on network television. And now, over seven months later, his victory has finally aired. Which begs the question… does he finally have the money?

“No!” David tells Entertainment Weekly. “But I’ve already started spending it! That’s what’s been going on. It’s not in the account just yet.”

You would think a guy who just won $5.8 million dollars would be aggressively asking when he can get his damn money, but it turns out Genet has taken the opposite approach. “I actually haven’t asked that question yet,” he says. “I remember just after everything happened, someone came and shoved a contract in my face and they were like, ‘So you need to sign this to facilitate getting the money.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, let me just have a little read here.’ And at the top it was like, ‘We such and such declare we will sign over the value of $5.8 million to the assigned.’ And I was signing my name on that line. It was heavy.”

So when will he get the money? David has no idea! But he’s willing to have some fun with it. “I think I’ll check it every day and I’ll post to Instagram every day showing people my account balance.”

EW was on set for David’s historic victory (check out our report on everything that did not make it to air) and spoke to the DONDI champion in the Temple shortly after his victory to get his immediate reaction to everything that went down. But we also caught up with the soon-to-be multimillionaire on the day his finale aired to find out what it was like watching it play back on TV, if he thought at all about the $6 million he left on the table, his relationship with Parvati on the show, and much more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: What was it like for you watching that whole final Temple play back on TV?

DAVID GENAT: I mean, it has been a long time to wait and I’ve been thinking about it, obviously, nonstop — but also having to try and play that everything is normal. Nothing is normal! My whole life has felt completely different for the last six months. So I was wondering when I watched that back in person — and I was watching it with a bunch of the cast and Joe and a bunch of my friends from LA last night — and it just hit almost as hard as when I played.

And I remember when I was there being really in that zone, but watching it last night, I felt so removed from my body. I was like, “Dude, don’t! No, take that deal! Why?” was really crazy. It is just hard to explain, but it was amazing to watch it again. It was such a huge dopamine hit. I mean, I’m humming, man. I’m still humming. I’m so tired, but I just can’t sleep.

Did you even go to bed that night when you played? I mean we were there well past 3am, but I can’t even imagine being able to sleep for a week after that.

Yeah, I don’t think I slept properly for two weeks. I floated out of there. I literally just levitated. I was levitating around the world. It was like walking on a cloud.

We spoke about this down on set right after you won, but your plan if you had not accepted that last deal was to switch cases to number 7, and you would have won over $12 million. Even with all your winnings, how often have you thought about that over the past seven months?

A little bit, Dalton, but to be honest, this is going to sound completely crazy, but I knew that the money was in case 7. I just had this feeling, and whether it was my dad passing me that information or was my angels or spirits or what it was, I knew. And in my head as I was justifying what I was going to do there, I was thinking, “Man, that is so much money. But 5.8 is insane, insane, insane money.”

And that’s what I wanted. I wanted to do something that had never been done before. I wanted to accomplish something that had never been done. And at 5.8, I do that. I leave a little bit of room for someone else to maybe do something bigger in the game. And also at 5.8, I’m still motivated to do something. At 12.2. I’m like, check me out, I’m done. I’m not good to society anymore. That’s just too much money for me. I can’t handle it. So I have thought about it obviously, but I just feel like it’s just such a great amount of money. And if I’m smart, then I can turn 5.8 to 12.2.

It’s funny how you mentioned you were watching yourself thinking “Oh my God, take the deal!” Because that’s what we were all thinking there watching it. All the crew members were like, “This guy’s a lunatic. What is he doing? He’s crazy.” Parvati was coming over and saying, “He’s out of his mind!” And now you got to feel a bit of that watching yourself.

So I had dinner with Boston Rob and Joe a couple nights ago, and Rob’s a real numbers guy. He does have a bit of a spiritual side. He does believe in some things and I don’t think he really talks about that, but he’s really like, “Dude, the odds of this happening? You are so dumb. You were so dumb to not take these deals.” And I’m like, “Was I though, Rob?”

Had it worked out the other way, we’d be sitting here having a very different conversation. But I don’t know what it was in that moment. I mean, you were there, man. I just felt like I couldn’t lose. I just felt like my father who passed a few years ago was there with me, guiding me, and it was just a very special moment.

Speaking of not being able to lose, how worried were you about how others might react to that news that you won Australian Survivor?

I think one of the things that the final challenge didn’t show was that I really poured my heart out to these guys. I used every ounce of my social skills and social game to turn them. And a couple of ’em already had some love for me. La Shell and I got along really great, but the speech I gave Phillip was really heartfelt. And just knowing Phillip’s character and being able to read Phillip, I was able to turn it around. They all wanted Lete to win, man. That was the only conversation they had. Once my name was out, they’re in there being like, “Lete should win this. David’s already won Survivor, he’s rich, he’s already got money.” I read it in your article. Most of ’em wanted Lete to win. So I had to really, really turn it up.

What was your reaction to Will throwing your last plank in the water and shouting out Big Brother superiority?

I started laughing. You don’t see that after he threw that in because Will’s not good at throwing. I mean, come on, let’s be honest. He really tried too, and he just couldn’t throw it that far. I’ve said it before, but I think that’s a common trait in Big Brother players that they’re just not that athletic. He gave it a good college try. But I thought that was so funny. And he’d been actually really helping me along the way and we flew through the bridge and I was like, “This is cool. We mended our fences. This is good.” And he throws it. For me that’s like a blip on the radar. I jumped in, grabbed it, and I started laughing. I was like, “You are insane.”  

I asked Parvati how much of how close you all were on screen was real and how much was you all playing each other, so now I’ll ask you the same thing. What say you?

Look, this is my game. Every time I’ve played any kind of social competition, I’m like, “All right, I’m going to find a cute girl and really get into a relationship where there is a good bond there.” I play these games where you have to build bonds really quick, and whether that’s a friendship connection, or some kind of bond, or a little bit of a flirty romantic connection, I like finding those connections so that you’ve got a reason to keep me. What other reason do you keep a 6-foot-4, 225 pound athletic machine in a game like this? You have to find bonds that are a little bit deeper than just like, “Oh, you’re a nice guy. So that’s what I do really well. I’m good at socially connecting with people.

I did that in both my seasons on Survivor. I did it on Celebrity Apprentice. I’ve done it in all my competitive reality outings and I picked that up from Parvati when I watched Survivor. I literally am thinking I could be male Parvati when I go to Survivor, and that’s what I’ve done. So then to see her out there, I was like, “Oh, this is the Super Bowl. This is crazy.” And we initially just start obviously doing that. We start kind of that little flirt game and then we just had a really genuine connection. We became best friends in the space of a couple of days and got to just run through this game together.

It was so, so fun. We are going to be friends for life. She’s an incredible person. And I know they loved playing that stuff up on the camera. I think [showrunner Matt Kunitz] was really desperate for a showmance this season. They’re like, “Come on, Storm and MG!” And then we really thwarted that so he was like, “Oh, what about Dave and Parv?” And they’re like, “Well he is married and she’s gay. I don’t know how that plays.”

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.