‘The Challenge’: Amber B. Reveals Where She Stands With Fessy After His Alliance Betrayal
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Amber Borzotra dishes all about winning her first season of ‘The Challenge’ and reveals why she and Fessy still have a long way to go after their falling out.
On her very first season of The Challenge, Amber Borzotra has become a champion. On the April 21 finale of The Challenge: Double Agents, it was revealed that the Big Brother alum won the show along with her partner, longtime Challenge vet, CT Tamburello. Meanwhile, Amber’s fellow Big Brother alum — and former alliance members, Fessy Shafaat and Kaycee Clark — came in fourth place when they weren’t able to finish the first leg of the final race.
Earlier this season, Amber’s original partner, Darrell Taylor, was eliminated, and she chose to steal Fessy as her new partner. However, that didn’t last long — he purposely threw himself in to the next male elimination challenge just so he could nab Kaycee, instead of Amber, as a partner before the final. Even before that, Fessy didn’t hide the fact that Amber was on the bottom of his alliance, and it’s taken a toll on the pair’s relationship outside the game.
“I have to have a conversation with him because I haven’t had one yet,” Amber told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “I’m at the bottom of the barrel with the Big Brother alliance and now I see it. I feel like I was just a number to help get them through. He did apologize for a few things, but I didn’t know about some of the things that were said behind by back until it aired. So I felt some type of way about it and haven’t spoken to him about it yet. It’s not going to be easy for him. I’m not going to let him slide on this one. Me and Fessy don’t really speak outside of the game, so it’s just a conversation that will have to be had sometime soon.”
When Fessy chose to partner with Kaycee, Kaycee’s original partner, Leroy Garrett, opted to go with Nany Gonzalez as his new partner. That left Amber and CT paired up going into the final. It was their first time working together all season. “[We had] no game relationship,” Amber admitted. “I was, at one point, trying to get him out of the game. But CT and I had moments in the house where I was having a hard time and I remember going to him because he’d done this a lot. I’d be in tears and he’d give me the best advice. So, we didn’t really have a relationship when it came to the game, but he was someone who was nice to talk to about past experiences and get advice from.”
Amber and CT won $900,000 after the final, which they split. Kam Wiliams and her partner, Cory Wharton, came in second place, earning $100,000. Meanwhile, Leroy and Nany came in third, and made no money. Check out more from our EXCLUSIVE interview with Amber below!
On being underestimated by her fellow cast members: I’m a rookie and I have a form of Dyslexia with my numbers and doing math wasn’t my strong point. There was a time in a daily challenge where I had a hard time eating. But people didn’t understand that when I got to a final and $1 million is on the line, I’m going to do anything to get there. I think it’s multiple reasons [why people underestimated me]. It was my rookie season. I’m learning a lot and I felt like I made some mistakes. I’m tiny. I didn’t work out at all in the house. I barely ran, I just chilled. I think no one knew what I could bring to the table because I’d never done this before.
On why she loved working with CT in the final: CT was the yin to my yang. He was literally my other half in this. We did complement each other. Where I was the weakest, he had his strong points. We balanced each other very well. I couldn’t have asked for two better partners [CT and Darrell] my rookie season. They’re both OGs, they’ve both won before. I was so shocked that the Challenge Gods chose me to be their partners.
I learned so much my rookie season form these guys. I have a notebook and I was taking notes and listening. That’s the best thing you can do coming in as a rookie — pay attention and learn from the ones who’ve been doing this a while.
On why winning was so meaningful for her: For me, I literally come from nothing. People think because you have a blue tick by your name or you have followers, that your life is so peachy — and mine isn’t. I get to do so much for my family now. Im so grateful and thankful for this experience and The Challenge. It’s nice because now I have a family in it. I f***ing love The Challenge!
On whether she’d return to the show: Of course! I think there’s a lot of things I’m still going to have to prove, just for myself. I feel like i can’t go into it with a big ego and I’m not going to do that. It’s a learning experience. The next Challenge si going to be different than the first one. But I’m happy that for my rookie season I did Double Agents, which seems to be one of the hardest in Challenge history, from what I’m hearing. So I’m happy that I could knock that out and get one season under my belt and get a win out of it. But I still feel like I have a lot to prove — not necessarily to anyone else, but to myself.