Moriah Jadea experienced difficult emotions while on MTV’s The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion due to her conflicted feelings about her showmances.
On the one hand, she had left her previous showmance, Johnny Bananas from Ride or Dies, behind to film the new season without him.
On the other hand, she met The Challenge: UK’s James Lock, who she quickly became attracted to and interested in, sparking a new Season 39 showmance.
Throughout the episodes, a storyline highlighted her situation related to Bananas, who was teased as one of the returning Challenge champions coming to the show.
He never appeared, but other returning champs mentioned him to Moriah when they were at The Arena.
In a recent podcast appearance, Moriah claimed she still felt upset over hurting Bananas, explaining why she felt so bad.
She revealed she’d also sent her Ride or Dies showmance a special gift, which would be delivered to him while she was on Season 39.
Moriah says she felt ‘horrible’ about the Bananas situation during Season 39
While appearing on the Challenge Mania Podcast, hosts Scott Yager and Derrick Kosinski asked Season 39’s Moriah about the Johnny Bananas situation.
“I felt horrible. I’m still sorry that I did it. I’m not sorry for how I felt, but I am sorry for how I made someone feel,” she told the podcast hosts, adding, “I wish that I could’ve done differently.”
Derrick asked Moriah if she felt sorry because she had cheated on Bananas. She indicated that wasn’t what it was.
“I’m such a soft person; I don’t like to hurt anyone. So if I hurt someone, I’m not a psycho. My head isn’t warped where I’m like, ‘Yeah, I hurt them, but I don’t really care about them,'” Moriah shared.
“If I hurt someone, I genuinely feel upset about it, and just knowing how open and vulnerable Johnny was with me, and how open and vulnerable I was with him,” she said, mentioning she was with him before Season 39 started.
Moriah also revealed an interesting detail not mentioned during any of Season 39. She’d sent special gifts to Bananas for their relationship, but they were getting delivered while she was filming the new season.
“On his birthday, I sent him gifts, and they were getting delivered while I was on the show, and I was like, ‘F***, I need these to unsend,'” she shared.
According to Moriah, one of the gifts was a custom-made cartoon book featuring them together. It’s unclear if and how Bananas received those gifts.
Moriah’s showmance nearly reached the Season 39 final
In Ride or Dies, Moriah lasted in the game for quite a while due to her initial teammate being Faysal “Fessy” Shafaat and her showmance with Bananas helping her mostly stay safe.
Viewers saw Moriah’s new showmance, James, remain in the game for most of Season 39, thanks to her asking allies to keep him safe from elimination. He only competed in one early elimination, but that was due to castmate Chauncey Palmer calling him out.
Although he won that one, he ended up on The Arena’s ground level one other time with Kyland Young. James had some luck then, as returning champ Darrell Taylor drew Kyland’s name at The Draw.
However, Episode 17 was the end of the road for James and Moriah’s showmance screen time. James ended up among the bottom three when it came to cast members saving others. Unfortunately for Moriah, she was unable to keep him safe.
He’d enter a three-way battle against Nurys Mateo and Olivia Kaiser, with Nurys able to win a second-straight elimination, sending the other two home.
She triumphantly returned to The Challenge house and spoke with Moriah, who was distraught because her man was no longer there with her.
“He was the realest person out of everyone this season, so it sucks to see him go,” a teary-eyed Moriah told Nurys.
As a consolation, Moriah advanced to the final with a chance to win her first-ever season and quite a bit of prize money.
The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.