The Challenge: Double Agents rookie Natalie Anderson had a strong start to her first season on MTV’s reality competition series but made an unexpected early exit in the fifth episode.
Natalie had to leave The Challenge due to a personal matter, which wasn’t revealed during the show but was made available through exclusive interviews once the fifth episode aired.
In a recent podcast interview, she gave more details on the unique circumstances that forced her out of the game early and the unfortunate event that occurred after she left.
Natalie was ‘deactivated’ on Double Agents
The Challenge: Double Agents Episode 5 featured an early surprise when host TJ Lavin announced one of the agents was “unexpectedly deactivated.” He revealed that Natalie had to leave the show. She hugged castmates before her departure and spoke briefly in a confessional interview about it.
“I have a personal matter that requires me to leave the game. I have to deal with something, and it sucks that I have to step out because all I want to do is compete,” the former Survivor winner said. “It’s breaking my heart to leave.”
There wasn’t any further information given at the time about Natalie’s reason for leaving, but exclusive interviews surfaced online explaining what happened. During her time away on Double Agents, she revealed to her twin sister on a FaceTime call that she’d missed her period. Production asked her to take a pregnancy test.
It turned out she was pregnant, and production wasn’t going to let her continue competing, so he had to leave. Instead of making it seem she quit the show, they used a different angle to remove her.
Unfortunately, not long after returning home from Double Agents, Natalie suffered a miscarriage, which was a very tough loss for her and her boyfriend, Devin Perez.
Natalie shares more about leaving The Challenge
On MTV’s Official The Challenge Podcast episode, Natalie Anderson spoke with co-hosts Aneesa Ferreira and Tori Deal about her story. It brought difficulties for her in dealing with having to leave the show, but then another tough event once she got home.
Natalie shared she was in a relationship for a year before she went on Double Agents, which was new for her while competing on a reality show. She said she typically went onto the other shows being “super single,” but this was like having a teammate back home she was trying to make proud.
However, she got the news that she had become pregnant, which she hadn’t been planning on.
“The unexpected news of finding out I was pregnant while I was out there…it came like such a crazy shock. I just didn’t even know how I could get pregnant because I was under so much physical, and mental, and emotional stress before going out there,” Natalie told Tori and Aneesa.
“It was just like this really abrupt ending to a mission I was on,” Natalie said, also revealing that when she got back to the states, she found out during an ultrasound she was eight weeks pregnant.
It was a mental struggle for her to have to leave the competition. She went on to say she had to tell herself that she wasn’t quitting The Challenge but that this was something she needed to do. However, another unexpected event happened in her life.
“Unfortunately, about a week after I came back home, I had a miscarriage, and it was like this other bump in the road,” Natalie shared as far as her story goes.
“I had made peace with the fact that I wasn’t going to compete,” she said, which was tough for her because she is very competitive. However, when the miscarriage happened, it created another tough situation for her.
“Losing the pregnancy, it was hard for me. I was just like a ghost,” Natalie said, adding she only talked to her boyfriend and twin sister after that.
Natalie also mentioned that nobody knew she was home from The Challenge, so she used it as a time to have personal space from everyone and process things.
She told Tori and Aneesa on the podcast she wanted to share her story with others who may be going through a similar circumstance and are having a tough time letting go. She said as she was coming to terms with what happened, she never blamed herself for the situation.
Natalie Anderson is certainly a strong-minded competitor who has clearly dealt with a lot. She was the first Gold Skull winner on Double Agents and did that as a rookie. Many of The Challenge fans will be ready to see her return to continue where she left off.
The Challenge: Double Agents airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.