During The Challenge: Ride or Dies, viewers saw multiple showmances during the episodes, with rookies including Nurys Mateo, Horacio Gutierrez, and Olivia Kaiser having an interest in some of their veteran castmates.
In particular, Olivia caught the eye of veteran competitor Nelson Thomas, who had attempted a showmance in the previous season with another rookie, Berna Canbeldek.
Things didn’t work out between Nelson and Berna after the season, and as viewers saw, not many rookies from that Spies, Lies & Allies season returned for Season 38.
However, Ride or Dies brought many newcomers to The Challenge, including the former Love Island USA winner, Olivia.
In Ride or Dies, Olivia and Nelson hit it off, and they continued exploring their interest in one another throughout their time filming the season.
However, something viewers didn’t see or know of until now was that Olivia was interested in another vet prior to that and was even part of a love triangle with a fellow rookie.
Olivia was interested in Ride or Dies castmates before Nelson
During her appearance on Johnny Bananas’ Death, Taxes and Bananas podcast, Olivia opened up about how there was almost another showmance ahead of the one she had with Nelson.
“I mean, I came into the house, and I saw Jay, I think, on one of the seasons a couple of episodes, and honestly, like in the past episodes, like I didn’t see a personality at all,” Olivia said of watching Jay on previous seasons.
She confessed she was “nervous” about going into The Challenge, but Jay helped her get past that.
“So he made me feel comfortable. He was funny, and he seemed to take a liking to me,” she shared.
Despite what seemed like mutual interest, Olivia said she felt “something was off” and that maybe Jay had some “things going on back home” and was “figuring them out.”
Bananas probed a bit to get an answer about what he had going on back home, with Olivia eventually saying maybe he was involved in a relationship and that someone in the house told her.
Olivia talks about love triangle involving Challenge castmates
During his podcast, Bananas mentioned for those who might not see video of their chat, Olivia was nervously playing with her hair while discussing the situation. She said she didn’t want to “blow up” anything for her castmates.
However, the seven-time champ brought up that Jay was “playing musical beds” with Olivia and fellow rookie castmate Colleen Schneider.
Olivia said the situation between Jay and Colleen was something she hadn’t known about until Colleen came to her to tell her what was happening.
“And so yeah, I think at some point he like ended up maybe like you anymore, and Then I- she came to me, calling came to me and told me, like, ‘I’ve been, like, sleeping in his bed’ or whatever,” Olivia shared.
She said that’s when she called Jay into the yard to discuss things and realized she wasn’t going to pursue anything with him. However, none of this footage aired during the season and was never mentioned.
Bananas asked Olivia about her “jumping into Nelson’s bed” as a possible move out of spite toward Jay or if there was more to the situation.
“I will say that I’m a pretty petty person at times, so. My answer- I don’t want to discredit that, you know, my feelings for Nelson because, like if I don’t want to disrespect him like that, but I definitely knew what I was doing,” Olivia said.
As viewers saw, Olivia and Nelson’s showmance was part of the story in many episodes. That included a difficult part of the game where Nelson had to choose between saving his friend Faysal “Fessy” Shafaat and Olivia from going into the elimination. He opted for Fessy, making for an interesting situation, which Olivia seemed understanding of.
Ultimately, Nelson was eliminated ahead of the final, prompting Olivia to rush down to embrace him before his exit at The Zone. Olivia would go on to qualify for the Ride or Dies final. Based on her comments, she and Nelson tried to continue exploring a relationship after The Challenge filming, but she eventually had to “friend-zone it.”
With all the unaired and unsaid details, there may be even more to this story once The Challenge: Ride or Dies reunion arrives following the season finale!
The Challenge: Ride or Dies airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.