After a lengthy hiatus, Frank Sweeney Fox is finally back again on The Challenge, this time for the All Stars Rivals spinoff.
Before All Stars, the former show winner last appeared on MTV’s Free Agents season in 2014 before disappearing from reality television.
He’s been among the key drama providers on Rivals, as he and his allies have been strategizing their way to the All Stars final.
His castmates believe it’s a group effort. However, in his confessional interviews, Frank said he was responsible for running the game with his castmates doing what he wanted.
Several episodes have featured brief arguments between Frank and castmates at deliberations, including Amber Borzotra and Shane.
While some fans have blasted All Stars Rivals, fans likely missed seeing Frank until now due to his ability to deliver entertainment on the show. He recently opened up about why he stayed away for so long.
Frank explains his lengthy absence from The Challenge
Following the recently aired episode of All Stars Rivals on MTV, Frank appeared on the Mike Lewis Podcast to speak about various topics. Mike asked Frank why he was away from the show so long and chose to return for Rivals.
“It was just about alignment with everything I had going on in my life,” Frank said, mentioning that his Rivals and Free Agents were rough seasons for him.
The Rivals reunion featured an infamous slap moment when his castmate, the late Ryan Knight, slapped him in the face. That incident made it onto the final episode, and Frank said he felt “very set up” by it, also adding he felt “the powers that be” didn’t have his back.
He returned for Free Agents as he needed money for graduate school, but his chance of winning another season was cut short when he contracted pneumonia.
“It’s like fool me once, fool me twice, I need to take a break,” he said.
“And then, things just naturally evolved into a real-life rhythm. Then, I’m building up my career. Then, I’m building up my relationship. Then I’m just living my life, and The Challenge is just not part of it,” Frank shared.
“Now I get a chance to be me and see what this looks like without all of these other influences and without this very weird science project of a life,” he said.
Frank said The Godfather ‘sold’ him on doing the All Stars spinoff
Frank shared that he received a call from The Challenge’s OG, Mark Long, a “really good salesman” who sold him on All Stars.
He said that compared to the length of filming for MTV’s flagship show, it’s much shorter, at just five weeks.
“I have an actual career I can’t leave for that amount of time to do the flagship,” he shared.
Frank said everything else in his life was basically “in check,” including his relationship with his husband, his pets, and his ability to take time off from his career to film All Stars.
According to the former Real World: San Diego star, he kept receiving calls for The Challenge throughout his hiatus. That included multiple seasons of All Stars and the iconic MTV Season 40, Battle of the Eras.
However, he was happy with his life, including being away from reality TV and social media.
Fans might want to see him continue appearing on the show from here, but Frank said he’s got his life in order and has some big things in the works.
“This is not a lifetime career with me, and I’m not dogging the folks who do it. If I had the checks coming in that they have coming in just to show up, I would also show up,” he said regarding The Challenge.
“This isn’t my life. This is an extracurricular activity that I want to have fun with, and I felt that going into [All Stars],” he shared.
The Challenge: All Stars Rivals airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
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Looking forward to 42