Imagine being left to fend for yourself in the brutal Alaskan wilderness at the age of 12. Imagine surviving a grizzly bear mauling, losing multiple loved ones, enduring years of extreme isolation, battling chronic injuries, and even suffering burns from the very environment you’ve mastered – and still greeting each day with a defiant smile. This is the life story of Sue Aikens, a woman who has stared down tragedy after tragedy and refused to surrender. Known to millions from Life Below Zero, Sue has become an icon of resilience. This is the story of how she’s laughed in the face of hardship from her earliest years until now.
Sue’s saga of survival began with an almost unthinkable childhood trauma. Born in suburban Illinois in 1963, she was uprooted at age 12 when her mother abruptly brought her to a remote area north of Fairbanks, Alaska – and then left her there alone. One day she was a little girl with a sock-monkey doll; the next, she was forced to swap toys for rifles and learn to survive in the wild.
An old Alaskan outdoorsman took the stranded girl under his wing, teaching her to hunt and live off the land. By age 13, Sue had managed to complete high school through an accelerated program, but her real education was survival. Those early years were filled with cold, hunger, and danger, but also forged the fierce self-reliance that would define her life.
As a young adult, Sue eventually left Alaska for a time, married, and had children. But tragedy found her even in the so-called normal world. She married three times, and each union ended in heartbreak. Her first husband died of a brain tumor, leaving her widowed far too young. Years later, her second husband, Eddie James Aikens, with whom she had two children, passed away a few years after their divorce.
Her third marriage brought perhaps the most painful betrayal – her husband left her for a much younger woman while she was away caring for her grandson during his battle with cancer. Through these losses, Sue endured the death of two husbands and the collapse of a third marriage due to infidelity. She became a single mother, raised her children to adulthood, and today is a proud grandmother. Though her family lives far from the Arctic, Sue has found peace in her independence, cherishing visits while embracing her solitary lifestyle.
Back in Alaska for good, Sue made her home at the remote Kavik River Camp, 500 miles from the nearest city. There, in 2007, she faced one of her most infamous trials – a grizzly bear attack that nearly ended her life. While drawing water from a river, Sue was ambushed by a massive male bear.
The animal mauled her, biting into her head and face and dislocating both hips. Alone and gravely injured, she dragged herself back to camp, stitched her own wounds, and even tracked and killed the bear to ensure it would not threaten her again. For ten long days she endured excruciating pain and freezing temperatures before rescue finally arrived. Doctors were astonished she survived at all. Yet within weeks, Sue was back at her camp, carrying on as if death had never knocked at her door.
Years later, television crews came to film Life Below Zero, capturing Sue’s real-life survival in one of the harshest places on Earth. But filming brought its own dangers. In one notorious incident, producers insisted she ride a snowmachine over unstable overflow ice for a scene, despite her objections. The snowmachine crashed, injuring her badly. Sue later alleged that the crew delayed her medical care to keep filming. Unwilling to be exploited, she filed a lawsuit against the production companies, claiming they had endangered her life. It was a public battle that showed Sue’s toughness extends far beyond the tundra – she was just as fierce in the courtroom.
Living in extreme conditions for decades inevitably takes a toll on the body. The bear attack left lasting damage to her hips, and years of hauling, hunting, and braving subzero cold compounded her injuries. Sue developed a herniated disc in her lower spine, which caused relentless pain and sciatica. She underwent spinal surgery to repair the damage and later had additional procedures to address her L4/L5 vertebrae. Even after the operations, she pushed herself to regain strength, adopting a healthier lifestyle that saw her lose over 75 pounds. Her goal wasn’t vanity – it was to keep her body strong enough to continue the life she loves.
And if that wasn’t enough, in 2023 Sue was hit with yet another blow — a herniated disc in her neck. She called it ‘unbearable pain,’ the kind that would flatten most people. But Sue isn’t most people. She went under the knife, faced the agony head-on, and, like always, came out the other side grinning at the pain that tried — and failed — to break her.
But Alaska’s environment is as punishing as it is beautiful. Recently, Sue suffered severe frost burns after accidentally touching metal at subzero temperatures. The damage was immediate and painful, yet Sue treated the injury with the same grit she’s shown all her life – tending to it, healing, and then getting right back to work.
Through it all, life outside her camp brought fresh heartbreak. In 2023, Sue lost her beloved 18-year-old granddaughter, Drew, and her sister, Pam, within a short span. For someone as famously stoic as Sue, the grief was raw and visible. She spoke openly about how much her family means to her, and the losses cut deep. Even so, she has honored their memory by continuing to live fully, refusing to let sorrow end the life she’s built.
Today, Sue Aikens is still at Kavik, still waking up to minus-50 mornings, still laughing at the absurdities and dangers of her world. She has survived abandonment, widowhood, betrayal, a near-fatal mauling, serious injuries, surgery after surgery, frost burns, lawsuits, and unbearable grief – and through it all, she’s never let tragedy define her. Instead, she meets it with a grin, a sharp wit, and a will of iron. Sue Aikens doesn’t just survive the wild – she thrives in it, proving that a true badass can look tragedy in the eye and laugh right back.
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