Alexia Umansky leaned on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test season 4 champion Gia Giudice before trying her hand at the reality show.
“She was like, ‘Give me the lowdown from start to finish,’ and I did,” Gia, 25, exclusively told Us, while promoting Next Gen NYC. “I was like, ‘The physical aspect of it was the hardest part for me.’ I felt like my body was crumbling. But then as you keep going on, I was like, ‘Alexia, we’re young, so yes, it was really hard for me in the beginning, but each day I genuinely felt my body getting stronger and stronger.’ So then, by the end, it’s more of a mental thing than a physical thing.”
She continued, “I feel like in the beginning, the physical aspect really kicks your ass because you’re just not expecting it. But then towards the end, it’s the mental. I think that’s my biggest piece of advice: You really just have to balance yourself and try to stay sane and don’t think about how gross everything is and just do it.”
Gia explained that she knew she was “gonna get dirty” while competing on season 4 of the show, recalling hitting a point in the competition where she “didn’t give a s***” about cleanliness.
“In the summertime, you try to reserve your hair, save your hair, not go in the pool. During Special Forces, I was like, ‘We’re getting dirty, so it doesn’t really matter,’” Gia explained, adding that she had extensions in her hair. “Me and Bri [LaPaglia] were like, ‘Are we the only dumbasses that have extensions on this show?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, we are. We are.’”
She continued, “And then I would always get yelled at because I took the longest showers, but I’m like, ‘Guys, I’m about to wash this hair. It’s so thick.’ I should have taken them out. I should have. I wanted to look good for the promo photo.”
Gia and Olympian Shawn Johnson ultimately completed the competition led by an elite team of ex-special forces operatives. Alexia, 30, is set to appear on the show based in Malaysia alongside dad Mauricio Umansky in season 5, which airs on Fox Thursday, September 24. Her mom, Kyle Richards, admitted that she was initially not thrilled about the father-daughter duo filming the show.
“My first thought was, ‘I’m going to kill you, Mauricio,’” Kyle, 57, told Page Six earlier this month. “I was actually not happy at all. I was so worried about Alexia.”
“I knew that [Mauricio] would do well or whatever, but I was really worried about my daughter,” Kyle continued. “I didn’t like that she got sucked into that. I kept texting the producers saying, ‘Please, I need updates. Is my daughter OK? Is Mauricio OK? Just give me something.’”
While viewers will have to wait and see what unfolds on Special Forces season 5, fans can stream season 2 of Next Gen NYC on Bravo and watch Gia and her group of friends navigate young adulthood in the Big Apple.
“It’s been so fun,” Gia said of watching season 2 back. “I think this season is so different from season 1. You really get a deeper dive into our personal lives and also our workspace. In tonight’s episode, you are also going to see us at BravoCon, which I think is super cool because I think this is the first time that I think a show on Bravo has ever done this. So you really see the behind the scenes throughout BravoCon, what we do, how hectic our days are, so it is super fun.”
Next Gen NYC airs on Bravo Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET. Stream new episodes the next day on Peacock.
