• Sue Aikens is a famous TV personality known for starring in the reality show "Life Below Zero".
• She grew up in Mount Prospect and was inspired by Otto Kilcher, who stars in "Alaska: The Last Frontier".
• She began working at the age of 16 and ran a camp in the wilderness.
• She is a philanthropist and loves nature and animals.
• She is 56 years old and has a net worth of over $1 million.
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Who is Sue Aikens? Wiki Bio
Sue Aikens was born in Mount Prospect, Illinois USA, under the zodiac sign of Cancer on 1 July 1963 , so she holds American nationality. Sue is best known for starring in the “Life Below Zero” reality TV show.
Is Sue Aikens still on “Life Below Zero”?
Sue spent some time off the show due to injuries she suffered on multiple occasions – she has since returned and is currently shooting new episodes.
Early life and education
Sue grew up in Mount Prospect, raised by her parents – from a very early age, she was taught that a woman should only focus on being a mother and a wife, however, Sue had a rather different idea, as she was inspired by Otto Kilcher who is living in the harsh wilderness of Alaska and is one of the stars of the “Alaska: The Last Frontier” show. When she was 12, Sue’s parents divorced and she moved to live in Alaska with her mother, but who eventually found a job and moved out, leaving Sue to live on her own and to take care of herself.
She attended Lowell Whiteman School in Steamboat Springs in Colorado, before moving to Alaska and didn’t enroll at high school nor college.
She began working at the age of 16 when she started running a camp in the wilderness, and moved to live in the camp when she turned 17, apparently learning something from her grandparents who were originally from Linlithgow in West Lothian, Scotland, where they owned and managed an environmentally friendly wilderness camp.
Career as a TV personality
After Sue’s camp was noticed by producers working for the BBC network, she was invited to star in the “Life Below Zero” reality TV show. The the series began airing on 19 May 2013 on the National Geographic Channel, and so far counts 12 seasons. It follows several people who are living in the Alaskan wilderness, and are surviving in its below zero temperatures – they hunt for their food and have to rely only on themselves. In 2007, Sue was attacked by a young adult male bear which almost killed her – she killed the bear but suffered severe injuries and was found only 10 days later by a pilot.
People have often asked Sue about why did she leave her house when she was 17 and went to live all on her own in a cabin in the wilderness to what Sue responded it was because out there, she is ‘not bound by the rules of society’.
The show brought Sue fame and recognition, but it was not always easy, as she once crashed driving her snow machine at 96 km/h on 2 December 2017, and suffered severe injuries, so skipping a couple of episodes. It is believed that Sue was verbally abused as well as terrorized by the show’s producers, and she pressed charges against BBC Worldwide Reality Productions, stating they were forcing her to do unsafe things to make the show more interesting, such as when she drove the snow machine.
She is currently running the Kavik River camp, where her clients are mostly people interested in science such as hydrology and geology – she offers accommodation for hunters from time to time, but at a certain time of the year, she only accepts autistic people and families with special needs children.
Love life and husband
Sue married her first husband when she was 19 years old, and the two spent 17 years together before he died from brain tumor – Sue gave birth to two children and they have already become parents making Sue a grandmother. Sue married again, however, her second husband left her for a younger woman leading to their divorce – he died not long after parting ways with Sue.
Sue has been married to her third husband Michael G. Heinrich for years now – there have been some rumors that the two might have divorced as well as Michael can no longer be seen appearing alongside Sue in the “Life Below Zero” reality TV series.
Interest and likes
Sue is a philanthropist who has donated a portion of the money she earned from the “Life Below Zero” TV show to charity, mostly to underprivileged children – she also enjoys working with these children and helping them with their daily activities. She did a bit of travelling throughout the years before settling in Alaska which she now considers to be her home.
Susie loves Disney!!❤️ pic.twitter.com/v0i5eAyiV1
— Susan Aikens (@SueAikens) December 17, 2019
Sue is a big lover of nature and animals – she has a dog whose name is not known. The wilderness in which she lives is filled with red foxes, lynx, and wolves, which Sue often hunts for meat and fur. She has recently mentioned in an interview that there was a bear around her Kavik River Camp, but he never presented a problem for the camp until his den was destroyed by a flood and he entered the camp – she states how she did not want to kill the bear but was prepared with a gun if he threatened the people staying there.
Sue describes herself as ‘a curious little monkey, kind of a raven personality, something shiny, something interesting, something new.’ She is a challenge-driven person, which is why she chose to live in Alaska in the first place.
Appearance and net worth
Sue has long brown and gray hair, green eyes, is 5ft 4ins (1.62m), and weighs around 125lbs (57kgs) – her net worth is conservatively estimated at over $1 million, as of mid-2024. She isn’t the owner of any property in Alaska, because she’s Caucasian and is not allowed to own land unless she marries an Eskimo or a native Alaskan, however, she owns all the buildings and the vehicles on the properties she’s using.