Following a dramatic episode of The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion, Olivia Kaiser told her side of the story involving Horacio Gutierrez, Nurys Mateo, and the surprising decision she made.
According to the former Love Island contestant, she received much backlash and hate after The Challenge episode aired, so she felt she deserved an opportunity to talk about what happened.
The Ride or Dies finalist said plenty was not shown during the recent MTV season, including footage of her stronger friendships in The Challenge house.
Speaking of friendships, Olivia also revealed a bombshell that she and Horacio Gutierrez were not friends before they partnered on Ride or Dies. Instead, they were introduced before going on the competition show.
However, she indicated that they bonded during the season. Still, she explained that she had many conflicts during Season 39 because Horacio hadn’t told her he’d be returning for the season.
“That already rubbed me the wrong way because if we really wanna break it down, me and Horacio were Ride or Dies, but me and Horacio were never best friends. We were not even really friends until we went on the season Ride or Dies,” Olivia said during her Gimme That Mic podcast.
Olivia said her strong friendships weren’t shown in Season 39
The Ride or Dies season of MTV’s The Challenge featured pairs of competitors that shared a strong bond, such as husband and wife, brother and sister, or best friends. According to Olivia, her and Horacio’s bond was manufactured for the show’s theme.
“Literally, our management knew that I was contacted for the show, and he’s like, ‘Oh, I have this guy that could be your partner,’” she explained, saying then she and Horacio met and got along on friendly terms.
“We went on the show, and if I’m being 100 percent real, we never clicked like a ride or die,” Olivia said.
“I’m not discrediting our friendship. We definitely grew a friendship, but it’s not best friends like everyone’s talking about,” she said.
They reached the Ride or Dies final, where Olivia suffered a horrific accident as a slingshot backfired and shot a ball into her face, causing her to get taken away for emergency treatment. Ultimately, it meant she and Horacio were done for the final.
Heading into Season 39, Olivia said she hadn’t known Horacio would participate, and he hadn’t contacted her beforehand to let her know. While she said he was one of her numbers, she also had other strong friendships when she arrived for the show.
During the podcast, Olivia mentioned she’d bonded heavily with former Ride or Dies castmates Michele Fitzgerald and Jay Starrett. According to her, they talked a lot more than she and Horacio. She said she’d visited Michele’s home and that they had hung out more than she had with Horacio or Nurys.
However, Olivia shared that even though she was “attached to Michele at the hip” during Season 39, it hadn’t been presented at all during the episodes airing on MTV.
She still considered Nurys a friend and was trying to outsmart the game to keep herself and Nurys safe.
Olivia said she apologized to Nurys for her voting mishap
The main drama in Battle For a New Champion Episode 16 occurred after Olivia got saved by Jay and Michele’s alliance at the deliberation. Since Olivia got to choose someone to save, most people expected she might save her friend Horacio or Nurys, seeing as they’d kept Olivia safe from the previous elimination.
Olivia said that Horacio and Kyland Young already knew during Episode 16 that they would be going into elimination, so their going in wasn’t surprising to them or anyone else. However, she had thought she could keep Nurys safe, and it backfired.
Because she’d learned from Michele that she might go into elimination, Olivia said she agreed to follow a specific plan at deliberation to save herself and thought it would save Nurys. Olivia saved Moriah Jadea, who saved her showmance, James Lock, and so forth.
Olivia had believed this plan would lead to Nurys’s also getting saved, but as viewers saw, it didn’t work out that way. Colleen Schneider had the last save and chose Corey Lay instead of Nurys.
“Who needs enemies when you have friends like Olivia?” Colleen asked in part of a confessional interview shown in the episode.
Due to the outcome of the deliberation, Nurys, Kyland, and Horacio entered the private Conquest elimination. Nurys defeated the two men at the obstacle course, eliminating them from the season in a bittersweet moment.
Olivia revealed she had three options at the deliberation, including what happened or screwing over Michele, who she views like a sister. She indicated her third option would’ve been to go into the elimination instead of Nurys.
According to Olivia, other footage that wasn’t shown involved her pleading with host TJ Lavin to let her swap places with Nurys. Olivia said that TJ returned to her after he spoke with production, who said the decision was already locked in, so that couldn’t happen.
That was never presented to viewers, so according to Olivia, she was edited to appear a certain way. However, she said she still takes accountability for the decisions she made in the game.
“Me thinking I was smart enough to save me and Nurys, and like thinking it was gonna work out perfectly in my favor was naive and stupid of me, and I am sorry for that,” Olivia said.
She shared, “I have talked to Nurys. We have had conversations. There is more that obviously needs to be discussed and said.”
Olivia said she almost didn’t attend the Season 39 reunion but ultimately did because she wanted to apologize to Nurys. However, she said she’d like to have further conversations with her without cameras so they can clarify things.
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!
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Just a backstabber trying to justify actions