Anna Leigh Wilson‘s rookie run on The Challenge: Cutthroat is officially over, and after the season she’s had, can you blame her for being a little relieved? On the latest episode, Tori Deal threw the house for a loop by keeping Michele Fitzgerald safe and marching into the arena to handle Anna Leigh herself. The Amazing Race alum made the Challenge vet earn it, too, putting up enough of a fight that Tori gave her props afterward. Unfortunately, props don’t keep you in the house, and Anna Leigh was sent packing.
Her exit came in an episode fittingly titled “Underweargate.” Rumors were flying around the house that Anna Leigh had swiped Johnny “Bananas” DeVenanzio’s underwear so she could sniff them in her downtime. Now that she’s home, she has her own theory about who was behind it. “If anybody has watched The Challenge, y’all know Johnny Bananas does everything for the plot,” she tells Gold Derby. “He is the plot.”
Below, Anna Leigh explains why getting picked by Tori actually felt like respect, doubles down on calling Cara Maria Sorbello a has-been, and fires back at Alexis “Lete” Lete as their feud spills onto social media. She also addresses the fallout from her embarrassing moment with Leo Dionicio, how The Challenge compared with running The Amazing Race with her dad, and who she’d draft first for her own team.
Gold Derby: You made a pretty dramatic splash on The Challenge. How are you feeling now after being eliminated from your rookie season?
Anna Leigh Wilson: Oh gosh, I’m sad, but also relieved that it’s over and that maybe my name will stay out of some of these people’s mouths for a little bit.
Tori shocked everyone by keeping Michele safe and going into the sand to take you on herself in the arena. Did that surprise you?
It did, but I also took it as a little bit of respect, because Tori clearly saw what it was and knew I had a very real shot of beating Michele down there. So she did what she had to do to protect her team. She’s bigger than me by a long shot, and she knew what the elimination was, while I was going in completely blind. So I think in her mind it was an easy win. If it had been Michele, I think we’d be having a different conversation.
You put up a hell of a fight against her, and she even said afterward that it was much more difficult than she thought it would be. What’s it like to hear that from someone like Tori?
Oh gosh, I respect Tori so much. I see a lot of myself in her. She definitely has that dog in her, and I see that in myself. I love that Tori’s gritty. She has a great social game, so I do need to take a few tips from her in that area. But yeah, she’s definitely my favorite female Challenger.
We overheard your name being discussed, and you said in the episode that you were fuming. You said everyone was walking all over you this season — except for Cassidy Clark, the only one who had your back. What’s it like being in that house and knowing everyone is talking about you?
Oh God, it’s a terrible, terrible feeling. Unless you’re in that environment, stripped away from everybody and everything you know and feeling like you’re on an island, you can’t really describe it to other people other than that it’s isolating. You hear so much about yourself that there comes a point where you start to believe it’s true. It makes you question who you are, how people perceive you, and how you’re moving through life. Lots of lessons learned, really. But at the end of it, I realized that absolutely nobody is coming to save me. I have to be my own hero. I think that’s why I just kind of unleashed at the end.
Let’s clear up some of the rumors people in the house were saying about you, starting with Underweargate. Were you stealing Johnny Bananas’ underwear so you could sniff them later? Are you sniffing Bananas’ underwear?
Look, first off, nobody wants to steal a grown man’s underwear. Second off, nobody wants to steal a grown man’s underwear who’s been with somebody like Lete. And third off, if anybody has watched The Challenge, y’all know Johnny Bananas does everything for the plot. He is the plot. So it has his name written all over it. To this day, he won’t admit it. But it was him, and I knew it then.
Lete confronted you about touching Bananas. She was very territorial and said you were going against girl code. Were you ever touching him, and what’s going on with you and Lete?
She got mad because I spanked Johnny Bananas’ rubber ducky, I guess, or because we sat next to each other on the bus. It was just a classic eighth grade game of “she sat next to my crush on the bus.” I think it was more insecurity than anything about me. Bananas and I have always been friends. We sat next to each other on the bus at the very beginning and at the very end, and there was nothing. Bananas reminds me of my dad. He’s hilarious. We cracked jokes together. We were friends then and we’re friends now. I just think she fell for his plot. It worked.
You also got in some hot water with Leo. How uncomfortable was it watching that back and having millions of people watch it all play out?
Oh, it was horrible. Insanely embarrassing. You can’t describe how embarrassing it is. And I knew it was embarrassing then, which is why I apologized to Leo the very next day. But they aired it a few days later, so it looks like it only happened after I had a conversation with Tori and Chris [Underwood], which is not true. And that’s why, from that point on, if I was in a man’s vicinity, I was sleeping with him, according to some people on the cast. But taking accountability doesn’t require me to agree with every single person who dislikes me. Once your interpretation gets presented as fact, that’s when you have to correct it. A lot of things have been presented as fact since the show aired, and while it was airing, on people’s social media, that simply are not true.
Defending myself is kind of damned if you do, damned if you don’t. If I comment back and tell my truth, people already have their minds made up about me. So I got to a point where I’m done trying to convince people to change their minds when they’ve already made them up. They’re committed to misunderstanding me at this point, so there’s no going back.
Why do you think so many of your relationships clashed in the house? Does it have something to do with being a rookie who’s not rolling over for everyone?
One thing I did notice, and I’m sure other people noticed as well, is that the women on that cast who are secure in themselves, like Nurys [Mateo], Sydney [Segal], Cassidy, Tori, and Reilly [Smedley], didn’t have any issues with me. It’s only the girls who are insecure who had an issue with me.
You called Cara Maria a has-been. Is she a has-been?
I think so. Did y’all just watch this season? She was my favorite female challenger going in, but definitely not coming out.
You obviously clashed the most with Lete. What led to all of that? It seems to have continued on social media after The Challenge, too.
It’s just on her end. I’ve obviously done something right if my name has filled so much of her narrative. She and Cara both continue to say my name in every single video, and I haven’t said anything about them. It’s very one-sided, and I truly think it doesn’t have anything to do with me. I think the fact that I stood up to Cara upset her. And I think the fact that I sat next to Lete’s crush on the bus and beat her in the initial race upset Lete. I don’t hate her. I don’t think I need to hate somebody to think they’re full of s–t sometimes.
You mentioned the Nurys. You were able to beat her in your very first arena, so that’s probably one of the highlights. Talk about that moment and what it meant to you.
Oh my gosh, it felt amazing, and it was so overshadowed because of that dang conversation. But it was crazy, because the top part of that challenge, the first few poles, almost seemed like they had double or triple drywall, because they were a lot harder to get out. So where it looked on the episode like we were almost neck and neck, it was actually the bottom ones, where Nurys had started, that were super easy. If you notice, I just pulled them out with one. But because of Bananas and everybody coaching me, I was able to start at the top, where they were harder, and knock those out first. It was tiring, but it was really fun and physical, which is exactly what I trained for.
How did this compare to The Amazing Race, which we all saw you do with your dad?
Night and day difference. On The Amazing Race, you just go and do your best. It’s harder because you have somebody you can’t leave five feet from, my dad in that case. But The Challenge was so much more social and political than I thought it was going to be. I did not prepare for that.
Last question: If you were to ever return and got to draft your own Challenge team, who would be your No. 1 male choice and your top female choice?
Ooh, No. 1 male would be Keanu [Soto]. No. 1 female, Tori.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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