‘The Challenge’: Jenny West Said She Still Respects Dee Nguyen Despite Nguyen’s Threats to Physically Hurt Her
The Challenge: Total Madness is over, and Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, as well as Jenny West, split the $1 million prize. West proved she was a physical force from the start, and she initially came into the competition with Dee Nguyen as an ally. Unfortunately, everything changed once Nguyen started to target West. And West took her out in an elimination before the finale.
At the end of the day, it seems West still has a lot of respect for Nguyen, though. Here’s what the winner had to say.
Jenny West said she ‘couldn’t trust’ Dee Nguyen in ‘The Challenge: Total Madness’
West and Nguyen joined forces even before filming began for Total Madness. But their alliance didn’t last all the way to the end, as Nguyen started to get concerned that West would beat her in the final and wanted to get rid of her. Once West got word of this, she knew she could no longer trust Nguyen.
“So when I found out from Rogan that she was thinking about putting me in, it was a massive shock,” West explained to Hollywood Life. “I was really surprised. … But once I knew she was trying to get rid of me, I didn’t want to hang out with somebody like that. Even when she knew I found out, she tried to say she didn’t say it and that her actions speak louder than words.”
West then added that she could no longer trust Nguyen at all, and she hoped to take her out herself in an elimination round. “So when I got picked as the house vote to go into elimination, and two of my closest friends, Kyle and Bananas, were in the tribunal, I knew they’d give me who I wanted [Dee].”
Nguyen allegedly threatened to physically harm West
After Nguyen was fired from MTV for her racially-charged Twitter posts, production cut out as much of her in the show as possible. This left a lot of lingering questions regarding what was really going on with West and Nguyen. And West explained to the Challenge Mania podcast that Nguyen was actually threatening to physically harm her.
“She came over to me in the kitchen area the night before, and she was like, ‘Hi, Jen. I just want to let you know that, whatever happens tomorrow, if it is me, I want you to know that I’m going to try my hardest.’ And I was like, OK. She’s obviously trying to threaten me,” West said.
“And she went, ‘I’m not going to look at you like a human, I’m gonna look at you like a thing, and I’m just gonna run straight through you. I’m not afraid to hurt you,'” West continued. “And I was like, OK, cool. And she was like, ‘I need you to know that. That I’m not afraid to hurt you.'”
West still has a lot of respect for Nguyen
While West was laughing at Nguyen’s empty threats, she still respects her as a competitor. West told the Challenge Mania podcast that after she beat Nguyen in the elimination round, Nguyen hugged her and told her she deserved to go to the final and win.
“I felt bad taking her out. I do respect her as a competitor,” West said. “I’ll never align with her again — I really doubt I ever would, I can’t imagine I ever would. … But I do respect her as a competitor. She did give it a really go. It was easy by any stretch.”
Now West doesn’t need to worry about seeing Nguyen on future Challenge shows. But it seems these two won’t be reconnecting outside of the show, either.
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