Based on recent claims from The Challenge: Battle For a New Champions star Moriah Jadea, her ex Johnny Bananas took an idea she had for merchandise and ran with it after they stopped seeing each other.
Viewers initially saw Moriah and Bananas in a showmance on The Challenge Season 38, aka Ride or Dies, and they continued seeing each other after the filming.
However, based on remarks during MTV’s current Season 39, they weren’t officially titled “boyfriend and girlfriend.”
It’s still played a part in a storyline on Battle For a New Champion as Moriah entered another showmance with castmate James Lock while filming the show, and various castmates discussed her situation with Bananas away from The Challenge.
Based on Moriah’s comments during the episodes, she felt she was embarrassing herself and Bananas on TV but chose not to give him a call during filming. However, word seemingly got back to Bananas from other friends who were castmates.
With Moriah and Bananas no longer seeming to be amicable, she recently revealed that her former showmance may have used her merch idea she told him about during their time together.
Moriah claims Bananas took her merch idea for crop tops he’s selling online
According to Moriah, she had a conversation with Johnny Bananas about her idea to create a brand that featured crop tops with little phrases she came up with.
“Lmaooo I told a certain someone that I wanted to start my own crop top brand with little phrases like some of the shirts saying ‘I’m not like most girls, I’m worse.’ And ‘no boyfriend, no problem,'” Moriah said in a since-deleted tweet.
“And my family just sent me that a certain someone did exactly what I told…Them I wanted to do,” she wrote, including a bunch of laughing face emojis.
An Instagram fan account shared screenshots of Mariah’s tweets on a photo of Bananas modeling the crop top shirt idea she mentioned.
Adding fuel to the fire, Bananas modeled the crop tops with Corinne Olympios, his House of Villains castmate, whom he may or may not be dating.
He and Corinne appear in an Instagram carousel post he shared on Thursday, each holding a small, fluffy white dog as they model the black crop top with the “No Boyfriend No Problem” written on the front.
“Who wore it better? 🍌 or 🌽 @johnnybananaswag,” his post caption says.
A swipe through the above carousel post shows the crop top is also available in white, and there are other sayings, including “Bite Me” and “Too Rad To Be Sad.”
The shirt, Boyfriend Women’s Crop Tank, sells on Bananas’ website for $32 in sizes small through XXL.
It’s one of many clothing items the reality TV star is selling. That also includes a “Margaret Gilbert” t-shirt – a reference to what castmate Bobby Lytes called him on House of Villains.
Moriah addresses more claims about her ‘cheating’ on Bananas
The recent Battle For a New Champion episode featured Moriah chatting about the showmance with her Ride or Dies castmate Olivia Kaiser.
Moriah agreed that her quicker connection with their new castmate, The Challenge: UK’s James Lock, indicates Bananas wasn’t “her person.”
However, she later mentioned not calling Bananas during a confessional interview, indicating she didn’t want to rip out her former showmance’s heart. Instead, she said she planned to tell him and apologize after the season’s filming.
Unfortunately for Moriah, a twist during the season brought in some of Bananas’ friends as champions to battle a main cast member in eliminations. Among them were Devin Walker, Kaycee Clark, and Tori Deal.
While they were just one-episode appearances, it seemed enough for the word to get back to Bananas about what Moriah was up to with James during filming.
In the most recent episode, Tori appeared at The Arena to compete. While there, she called out Moriah, asking what she was doing, and told her that Bananas was “heartbroken” over the situation. Tori later told Moriah to be smart and keep her head in the game.
A fan retweeted a clip featuring Tori discussing Bananas being “distraught” over Moriah’s fling with James on Season 39. The fan also mentioned that Bananas filmed House of Villains earlier in the year and was “hooking up with other girls months before Moriah left to film S39.”
While there was no footage indicating Bananas hooked up with anyone on Villains, he was seen in some flirty scenes with castmate Corinne, who he has continued to hang out with after their time on the show.
Taking to Twitter, Moriah fired back at a fan who called out her cheating, reminding everyone that she and Bananas “had no title but it was still wrong of me.”
In another tweet, she mentioned that she wasn’t “proud of” what she did on Season 39. However, Moriah added if she hadn’t followed her heart with James, she would’ve ended up watching Bananas on Villains and becoming “shocked and uninterested.”
For the most part, Bananas has been quiet regarding the Moriah showmance situation with James. However, he and castmate Wes Bergmann had a brief exchange on Twitter about The Challenge using him in the Season 39 storyline.
Add in the merch idea Moriah claims she told him about, and it seems Bananas may be throwing shade at his former showmance from afar and using it to profit as her Season 39 “fling” is shown on MTV.
The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
The link above is an affiliate link. This means that for any qualifying purchase you make, we may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you.