The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion brought back many women who appeared as rookies in the cast of Ride or Dies, including Moriah Jadea, who had a showmance with Johnny Bananas.
There’s also finalist Olivia Kaiser, who seemed to be on good terms with Moriah heading into their second-straight MTV season.
However, recent developments suggest otherwise, as the two castmates are now beefing on social media after two Season 39 episodes aired.
Moriah’s issue with Olivia arrived after it was shown in an episode that Moriah was flirting and interested in castmate James Lock, which meant she was cheating on Johnny Bananas, someone she’d been going out with away from the show.
Based on remarks from Moriah, her gripe with Olivia stems from “more than a confessional” that Olivia had in the recent MTV episode, though.
In a series of messages posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Moriah elaborated on what upset her, mentioning things her castmate said and did behind her back.
Moriah’s cheating revealed in Season 39 episode
In the I’m Coming Out episode, viewers not only saw Big T Fazakerley’s coming out on TV but also saw that Moriah was cheating on Bananas with Season 39’s James.
Scenes of the UK’s James and USA’s Moriah flirting and confessional interviews with their thoughts about a potential showmance were shown.
“If people got other stuff going on back home but are flirtin’ with me, that’s their problem, not mine,” James said in a confessional.
Meanwhile, other footage showed Nurys Mateo and Olivia in another room discussing Bananas and Moriah’s situation outside The Challenge. Nurys said Moriah has “never been in a full relationship with Bananas.”
Olivia suggested that despite Moriah and Bananas not labeling their relationship as “official,” they’d been going on dates for months.
In addition, Olivia called Moriah “so loyal,” indicating it surprised her that Moriah was so heavily into James. Nurys told Olivia that Moriah doesn’t “have to be loyal to be Bananas,” and Olivia replied, “Well, clearly.”
“James is so cute. It’s a really hard pickle to be in because I’m trying not to laugh at his jokes, but I think he’s so funny. I kinda wanna let go and stop holding back,” Moriah admitted in her confessional.
“I can’t say that I would do the same if I had someone back home,” Olivia said in a confessional interview, adding, “especially when I was literally with them days before coming here, but it’s not my story to write or tell.”
“Moriah, you playin’ with fire baby,” Olivia said in a confessional, just after footage of Moriah walking over to James’ bed to lie beside him.
Infrared footage showed Moriah getting out of James’ bed after cuddling and possibly more. Later, Moriah started crying as she talked with Nurys and said she didn’t plan on coming on this show and “embarrassing” Bananas.
She said she really enjoyed hanging out with Bananas after a year of them “hanging out” together. Nurys told Moriah she didn’t think she was doing anything wrong.
Moriah blasts Olivia after Season 39 episode
Taking to X, aka Twitter, Moriah sent a message to thank Nurys for having her back but also called out Olivia after the episode aired.
“Olivia let’s see how the season plays out and what you’ve done and then we can talk. your confessionals are very different than your conversations with me… I had your back when I shouldn’t have,” Moriah said.
Several minutes later, Moriah had more to comment, which ultimately sparked a back-and-forth.
“I should have trusted my intuition from last season, but I chose to keep quiet since it was never aired,” Moriah wrote in retweeting Ravyn Rochelle’s tweet about Olivia.
Olivia chose to jump into the tweetstorm following the above remarks, telling Moriah that the footage in the recent Challenge episodes was from the beginning of her relationship with James.
“Don’t be so quick to judge off one line,” Olivia told her castmate, adding, “Slow your roll girl, it’s not that serious.”
From there, Moriah said it was about more than just Olivia’s confessionals, calling out her castmate for “slick things” that she “said and did” toward her.
“I don’t need to hear more of whatever flip flop bulls*** you’re going to say,” Moriah wrote, adding she’d heard about Olivia from others.
In addition to the above, Moriah provided details on why she didn’t use one of her available calls or video calls to contact Bananas during Battle For a New Champion.
She said she “felt so bad” about what had happened and didn’t want to call Bananas and then be unable to speak with him for two months.
Ahead of Battle For a New Champion, Bananas appeared in a promotional video where he was shown with Moriah. It featured host TJ Lavin calling Season 39’s cast to let them know they’d be on the show.
Monsters and Critics reported several months ago that Bananas unfollowed Moriah on social media, possibly due to her hooking up with James in Season 39. It’s unclear if that was the case, though.
In addition, speculation was going around during the new Challenge season’s filming that Bananas was invited to appear as one of the OG mercenaries to compete in an elimination. However, rumors suggest he turned it down because he didn’t want to be used for the storyline involving Moriah.
If all that wasn’t enough, Bananas is shown potentially exploring showmances on the other reality TV show he started appearing on, House of Villains, mostly with former Bachelor star Corinne Olympios.
The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on MTV.