A showmance or a romance? There was definitely something in the air in Croatia while filming The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies — but it doesn’t sound like it was enough to last.
During this week’s “Watch With Us” podcast, we break down the latest on the hookups that are shaking up season 37 — specifically between Fessy Shafaat and Amanda Garcia, and Ashley Mitchell and Nelson Thomas.
Despite Fessy, 29, having a major falling out with and Amanda’s ally, Nelson, 32, last season, she was still attracted to him when the season kicked off, as shown in the first two episodes. However, they actually connected before filming began, she recently revealed during an Instagram Live.
“The quarantine thing, people got a lot closer,” Amanda, 28, said in the August 12 Instagram video with Ashley, 34, and Michele Fitzgerald. “We were in quarantine for 14 days? 10 days? The second time we had our phones, people were texting, alliances were being made, polid–king was happening. When we got into the house, it was like, ‘Game on.'”
During the season 37 premiere, viewers watched as the Big Brother alum and the Are You the One? vet engaged in a drunken kiss — “I was hammered,” she admitted during the Instagram Live — and they both thought the cameras weren’t around. “We thought we were by ourselves down there,” she said to her costars.
As for where they stand now, the pair are “just friends,” even though they reunited in Dallas earlier this month. As for what happened while there, Amanda joked, “I hump him and I dump him,” before explaining, “I think Fessy’s messy. I think he’s a reality TV boy. A lot of them just like to d–k around and not what I’m looking for.”
Ashley and Nelson, for their part, also connected before the show. In fact, after both were eliminated from season 36, they saw each other in Iceland and first hooked up there, she explained during the video. That then led to a few hookups in Austin, Texas, before coming on the show.
“I never freaking was [into him] in the real world but then I was quarantined for two weeks, and then I was in the Challenge house,” she explained. “Once I got out of that, I immediately realized I must have been [not thinking straight].”
The Real World alum continued, “I love him now. We get in fights all the time but I still love him as a friend and it was never gonna be anything more.”
For more on the latest Challenge hookups and what’s to come, listen to the “Watch With Us” podcast above and subscribe for free.
The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies airs on MTV Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.