‘The Amazing Race’ Season 34: Derek and Claire Fought Offscreen
Couples have had onscreen fights during The Amazing Race numerous times over the show’s 34 seasons. The nature of the competition causes tensions to rise, and some can’t handle the pressure. And the fact that contestants are racing in duos means they usually vent their frustrations on their partners. As for Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss, the stress got to them during the third leg of The Amazing Race Season 34.
Claire and Derek are racing around the world in ‘The Amazing Race’ Season 34
Derek and Claire met in Big Brother 23 on CBS in 2021. Although they didn’t start dating inside the house, they connected in the jury house.
A few weeks after the Big Brother 23 finale, Derek and Claire announced they were dating, much to fans’ surprise. But ever since, their connection has only grown stronger, and they currently live together in Los Angeles.
Derek and Claire agreed to appear on another CBS reality competition series — The Amazing Race Season 34. Their season premiered on Sept. 21, 2022, and the duo immediately got off to a good start. They finished the first leg in first place due to their excellent communication and navigation skills. However, the next two legs were a different story.
During the second leg, Claire struggled during a yodeling Roadblock. She and Derek left the challenge in second to last place, but they managed to make up ground and ended in fourth place. Then, in the third leg — a Megaleg that will conclude on the Oct. 12 episode — Claire had trouble again during a motorcycle building Roadblock.
She managed to finish the task, and the last time The Amazing Race Season 34 viewers saw Claire and Derek, they were in sixth place.
The couple reveals a fight they had during the third leg
Derek and Claire publish recaps of The Amazing Race Season 34 episodes on Derek’s YouTube channel. And in their most recent video, the couple discussed a fight they had offscreen at the beginning of the third leg.
“We’re way behind all the teams we started with because one, we’re behind them to get started getting directions, and then we got lost following the wrong car,” Derek explained. “So at this point, I’m like, ‘Shoot. We’re like 20, 30 minutes behind.’ This just led to a spiral. That’s when we went into our first fight of the race.”
Claire added, “I was also spiraling because the map was so hard to read … Where we started was not on the map. Our first clue thing was not on the map. So we just got very lost, and at some point, we realized I am not going to be able to navigate us to where we need to go.”
“Me and Claire had to pull over and ask for directions,” Derek continued. “This is when we got into one of our first fights because I wasn’t understanding why we couldn’t find ourselves on the map.” Claire picked up, “I’m having a hard time explaining it to you. So we’re both just getting more and more frustrated at the situation. So we have to pull over, flag someone down.”
Derek explained that the person told them to “keep driving west … We get back into our car, and I’m like, ‘Wait, Claire. Which way is west?’ This escalates our fight a little bit because I’m like, ‘How do we not even know which direction west is?’ We got into our first fight there.”
“But we were able to make it out of that because we prepared for this,” he revealed. “And I remember coming to the race, we were like, ‘We’re going to get into disagreements. But at the end of the day, the reason we’re disagreeing is because we’re trying to figure out what is correct. It’s not because of anything personal that either of us are doing. It’s because we both want what’s best for us.'”
Claire added, “We don’t think the other person is stupid. We both want to win. We’re fighting in the hope of trying to figure out what is the best thing.”
“So it’s almost like it was a disagreement, but it’s like constructive progress toward the best answer,” Derek concluded. “And I think you can learn a lot about someone when you can get into a fight, and then your relationship grows stronger from that.”
‘The Amazing Race’ Season 34 host describes Derek and Claire as ‘cocky’
While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, The Amazing Race Season 34 host Phil Keoghan discussed Derek and Claire and previewed their journey in the show.
“I think they wouldn’t flinch if I used the word maybe a little cocky, coming into it,” the host revealed. “Like, ‘We’ve done this before. We’ve competed on television shows before. We know what this is all about.'”
Keoghan added, “But then I think maybe once they got into the race, they kind of realized that it was a little more than they thought it was. In a good way. And in a humbling way. And I think they would be the first to admit that it was a little bit more than they thought it was.”
“It’s very easy to look from the outside,” he concluded. “It’s quite different when you get out, like most things, right? We look from the outside. We watch sports on TV, and we yell at the screen, ‘What an idiot! Why did they throw the ball there?’ But very different when you’re in the thick of it.”
The Amazing Race Season 34 airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS.
