The first part of The Challenge: Double Agents reunion brought all sorts of revelations and rehashing of some of the drama from Season 36. One of the people who got a lot of attention was sophomore competitor Fessy Shafaat, as did veteran player Tori Deal, for several storylines.
During part of the reunion special on MTV, Fessy’s attraction to Tori came up as one of the many topics focusing on the former Big Brother star. They each spoke about it during the reunion and confirmed that they’re just friends now.
Meanwhile, Tori opened up a bit more after the episode aired, while speaking with her castmate Aneesa Ferreira. The conversation included Tori’s trip she took to Turks and Caicos with Fessy.
Double Agents reunion featured Tori and Fessy’s situation
Vernon Davis, host of The Challenge: Double Agents reunion, brought up the mystery over the connection between Tori and Fessy this past season. It was touched upon briefly in footage shown during some of the episodes, and rumors started online.
Fessy admitted during his confessionals that he was attracted to Tori several times on the show but wasn’t acting on anything because she was engaged to Jordan Wiseley.
Later in the season, after Tori had been eliminated, Fessy was getting cozy with Double Agents rookie Gabby Allen. However, Fessy and Cory Wharton were still shown discussing his attraction to Tori. Fessy said during a confessional that he had some things to figure out when filming ended in terms of maybe exploring things more with Tori.
That seemed to happen, as the two tried to see if they had a romantic connection once filming ended for Season 36. As Tori previously stated, this happened after she and Jordan had broken up. However, she wasn’t fully aware while on the show about Fessy’s attraction and maintained that nothing happened between them while filming.
“I didn’t realize any of that stuff for the most part until after I had got eliminated from The Challenge and I was home,” Tori said at the reunion regarding Fessy’s attraction to her.
Tori said there was one moment during her time on the show where Fessy told her, “You’re beautiful.” She said she thought that maybe he was attracted to her but it was at the club, and he was drunk when he made the comment.
The Challenge reunion host Vernon Davis brought up how “CIA analysts,” also known as “Challenge superfans,” started digging for answers about a possible relationship involving Fessy and Tori. Davis said the super sleuth fans found pictures of what appeared to be Fessy and Tori on vacation together.
“After I got eliminated from the show, I recently got single, and so I mean my life was crazy. I don’t think people understand what I was going through that season personally,” Tori said.
“I got home. Your girl was single. I was trying to do whatever I could to feel good,” she shared at the reunion.
Davis asked her to give more details about the whole Turks and Caicos meetup between her and Fessy.
“I was going down there to meet up with a few of my friends. They work at Turks at one of the resorts there and Fessy just kind of slid through,” Tori said of the trip.
People tried to probe more into what happened during the trip, but all Fessy and Tori revealed were that they “talked” had “toes in the sand” and walked on the beach.
Tori shared more about the situation during podcast
During MTV’s Official Challenge Podcast episode after the reunion, Tori and co-host Aneesa Ferreira talked about the rumors. Aneesa said, unfortunately, their lives became public since they’re on television, but Tori now has more of a chance to address things.
“Let me just say it like this. It’s not like I went to Turks and Caicos with Fessy so that I could create more drama in my life,” Tori shared about her vacation.
“As a matter of fact, I was already so stressed out from what was going on. Obviously, I got eliminated by you. I was so happy for you [Aneesa] but sad that I lost, and go home, and within a week of going home, the breakup happened,” Tori added, regarding her situation after she left Double Agents.
Tori revealed it was “all so much so quick” for her and if someone was a fly in her house at that time they’d be like “Oh s**t, she’s in the gutter.”
“I was kind of doing whatever I could do to make myself feel better and like I said, I took a detour that I probably wouldn’t have taken had I not been in a better spot in my life,” she shared on the podcast.
Tori went on to reveal her current status, and said she’s less concerned about any more of those fan rumors.
“This many months post-breakup, I am in a much better spot. I am single as f**k. I am so happy, and you guys can say what you want to say about it but there is nothing going on between Fessy and me,” Tori said.
The Challenge airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.