The Challenge star Nurys Mateo reacts as fans blast castmate Jay Starrett for Season 39 drama

During The Challenge, sometimes losing castmates hurts badly as many individuals build solid friendships while filming and outside the game.

In MTV’s Battle For a New Champion, many tears were shed at The Arena when Asaf Goren was eliminated by returning champion Chris “CT” Tamburello.

One particularly choked-up cast member was Jay Starrett due to his bond with Asaf from before and during Season 39.

Jay has a lot of bonds and friends with castmates in the house, including Nurys Mateo, whom he’s known for five years. His bond with Asaf had him upset when CT called him down for the elimination battle.

Jay’s reaction to Nurys’ attempt to hug him featured Jay angrily telling her he didn’t want a hug, followed by his ally Michele Fitzgerald hugging him.

That moment from the episode riled up plenty of fans who felt it was too much extra drama from the former Survivor player.

Fans blast Jay after brushing off Nurys at The Arena

The Challenge 39, Episode 14 saw an interesting situation occur as Kyland Young’s four-person team won the daily challenge, keeping him and James Lock safe from the next elimination.

However, Kyland was outvoted by James, Moriah Jadea, and Michele Fitzgerald as they opted to nominate Kyland’s friend Horacio.

With that, Kyland tried to see if he could get some of his castmates to vote for Jay or another guy in his alliance as the second guy nominated for elimination. It ended up being a stalemate when Ed Eason and Emanuel Neagu each had equal votes at deliberation.

The group’s second vote didn’t change things, and another stalemate arrived, leaving things up to host TJ Lavin at The Arena. That left Jay vulnerable to go into his first elimination of the season.

Later, Jay was particularly upset at the house and blasted Olivia Kaiser and Nurys for not voting a certain way at deliberation.

At The Arena, TJ allowed returning champ CT to pick an opponent. CT opted for Asaf. While Jay didn’t get called out for elimination at The Arena, his friend did and got eliminated, leaving Jay visibly upset.

As mentioned, Jay brushed off Nurys’s attempted hug after CT first called Asaf down as his opponent for the elimination event.

“I’m not happy right now,” Jay said as he backed away from Nurys, telling her, “No, no, no, that’s still my brother.”

Soon after that interaction, Michele comforted Jay by hugging him.

Fans and critics vented on Twitter about Jay’s behavior during the show.

“Man Jay is a whole clown. Got defensive when nurys tried to hug him but hugged michele?? WHAT. CLOWN,” a Twitter user wrote.

Another person mentioned how Jay “talks down to Nurys pushes her and rejects her hug” in the episode.

“keep this chump off the show, I promise the views will increase drastically,” they wrote.

“Jay you should be SO LUCKY that the beautiful, brilliant Nurys would even want to hug your bald head a**,” another individual tweeted.

Another commenter mentioned how Jay refused Nurys’ hug but let Michele hug him.

“told u Jay not your friend Nurys,” they wrote.

Nurys reveals she was in tears, but production called out her castmate

Taking to Twitter after Episode 14 aired, Nurys had several things to say, including her commenting about Jay brushing her off. Based on her tweet, it made her cry, and she said production made her feel better.

“I actually cried (hate that for me) after Jay brushed off my hug and then behind the scenes, production came to me and talked s*** with me about him until I felt better. They called him a b***h for that too. I love them sometimes lol,” she wrote.

Season 39 marks Jay’s fourth and Nurys’ second appearance on MTV’s competition show. The close friends previously appeared as castmates on The Challenge: Ride or Dies, where Jay was teamed up with Michele and Nurys with her friend Nelson Thomas.

With cast members battling each other to try to win their first final in Season 39, it should be interesting to see if anything else erupts between Jay and Nurys as they look to claim that ultimate prize.

The Challenge: Battle For a New Champion airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.

Episodes of The Challenge are now streaming on Paramount+. Try it FREE!

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