After the airing of MTV’s The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies Episode 3, Tori Deal likely dealt with a good deal of backlash regarding her situation with castmate Tacha Akide shown in the episode.
It involved a blowup at elimination where Tacha took exception to an earlier conversation that she and Tori had. In that talk, Tori, who was part of the daily challenge winning team, had gone privately to Tacha to ask who she wanted to face in elimination later.
While Tori told her she’d try her best to make it happen, Tori and her partner Ed Eason chose to send in a different opponent, Tacha’s rookie roommate, which rubbed Tacha the wrong way.
Days after the episode’s airing, Tori addressed the situation online, letting fans know her perspective and thanking those who “had her back.”
Tori shares message with fans about Tacha situation
In a lengthy message to her fans, The Challenge’s Tori Deal shared the text from a popular quote attributed to Anand Mehrotra online, saying that everything makes sense one day, and “you realize what’s important and what isn’t.”
It goes on to say you care less about other people’s opinions of you compared to your own and smile at how far you’ve come in your life due to the fight it took to get there.
Beyond the quote, Tori shared her own words in the IG post’s caption, saying she wasn’t throwing any “shade” or giving “rebuttals” with this post. Instead, she said she is “happy and grateful for all the blessings.”
Tori goes on to remind everyone that “being on The Challenge is dramatic sometimes,” which is part of the show’s appeal. However, she cautioned people to realize “not everyone’s story line is highlighted.”
“I don’t really like to explain myself on social media too much because it just opens the flood gates for more Opinions and there’s really only so many opinions one person can listen to,” she said.
Ahead of the Season 37 Episode 3 airing, Tori deleted her Twitter, which immediately brought speculation that the upcoming episode would involve some drama.
It did, and it involved the castmate with the largest following of them all, so the “Tacha Titans” were ready to make their opinions known. Tacha currently has nearly two million Instagram followers and over one million more followers on Twitter.
Tori reminds fans ‘It was just game play’
In her Instagram message, Tori explained that her decision in Episode 3 wasn’t anything to intentionally hurt Tacha, but instead, it was how she decided to play the game.
“So, what it boils down to is that everyone has their own truth, their own reasons, and their own style of competing on the Challenge. No move I’ve ever made in the game was to hurt someone intentionally, it was just game play,” she said.
From there, Tori thanked the fans who came to her defense on social media.
“I appreciate all the messages a lot,” Tori shared in her IG caption (below), adding that she further addressed the Tacha situation even more in a recent Official Challenge podcast episode.
The third episode of MTV’s 37th season ended with an explosive situation. Just after Tacha lost in her elimination event to rookie castmate Berna Canbeldek, she thanked all her castmates and told them she was proud of them all, except for Tori.
She went on to scream at Tori, calling her a “fake a** b***h” for things that had transpired between them. Tori was unable to get any words in as Tacha continued to yell at her, before making her exit.
Tacha says she blocked castmate after leaving
On The Challenge Aftermath episode following MTV’s Spies, Lies & Allies episode, Tacha further explained the situation with her and Tori.
The Big Brother Nigeria star indicated that Tori hadn’t seemed to like her much while she was there and also revealed that Tori misled her during the season’s opening daily challenge. These aspects of the Tori and Tacha story weren’t shown in any footage, though.
Tacha said Tori told her she was part of her team with Kelz Dyke to get Tacha to help them smash their cinder blocks for the mission.
All of that, combined with the conversation shown in Episode 3 and Tori’s decision against Tacha’s wishes, caused things to boil over.
In addition to the outburst in the episode, Tacha said following the show, she blocked Tori, and as of the Aftermath show, they are “literally nowhere” in terms of a friendship off the show.
In a confessional ahead of that heated elimination moment in the episode, Tori was contemplating how some veteran castmates there did some “pretty messed up things” to her in the past.
“You never know when karma’s gonna come knocking on the door,” she said, which could be very true words in a future season.
The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.