The Challenge: War of the Worlds star Amanda Garcia was allegedly the victim of a disturbing prank that started as a joke but went too far, according to several of her castmates.
Da’Vonne Rogers was among the first to publicly speak out about the alleged incident involving Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio, Theo Campbell and Kyle Christie, which has not aired during the ongoing 33rd season of the MTV competition.
“I’m still not OK with that situation. Like, I’m not at all,” Rogers, 30, said in a recent video posted on her YouTube channel. “Before I get into it, let me say I do not think that the intention behind it was malicious. I don’t think that there was any type of malicious intent with what [Devenanzio] did.”
The Big Brother alum explained that Garcia, 25, “was doing all of this s–t-talking,” which prompted Devenanzio, 36, Campbell, 27, and Christie, 26, to step in.
“They taped her mouth shut — taped her whole face, basically, like, mummified her whole face with this tape,” Rogers claimed. “It went from, ‘Ha, ha, ha, this is funny,’ to Amanda screaming and crying, saying, ‘Stop, this hurts. Stop, it’s not funny. Stop, stop, stop.’”
Rogers recalled walking into the room and seeing Garcia “trying to pull the tape out of her hair, and it’s pulling, like, strands and strands and strands of her hair.” Rogers said she brought Garcia into the bathroom and drenched her hair with conditioner in an attempt to remove the tape more easily.
“As I’m in the bathroom, she’s sitting there, like, bawling, and I’m just kind of, like, slowly peeling the tape off, but still, her hair is still coming out,” Rogers continued. “It wasn’t cool. And I do feel like they owe her an apology because that wasn’t OK. … At that point, Amanda was ready to go home. I had to sit up ’til, like, damn near 5 o’clock in the morning, talking her into staying. … And [Campbell] did apologize too.”
Cast member Paulie Calafiore also spoke about the prank during a recent Instagram Live session with his girlfriend and costar, Cara Maria Sorbello.
“They, like, wrapped her up in, like, a whole bunch of s–t,” he claimed. “I forget what they used, but honestly, it was a little disturbing. Amanda was crying when they did that. It wasn’t cool.”
The Challenge veteran Shane Landrum, who did not compete on War of the Worlds, alluded to the alleged incident as well, writing in since-deleted tweets captured by The Ashley’s Reality Roundup, “DEMAND THE FOOTAGE.” Several fans have also signed a Change.org petition asking for the footage to be released “to be able to see whether or not the actions of the pranksters were malicious or not.”
Garcia initially spoke out about the situation on Twitter in February, when she wrote, “Looks like they didn’t wanna show the guys tying me up against my will either. Hmmmm. I guess if you don’t constantlyyyyy play the victim on tv they don’t wanna show that s–t.”
After the controversy made headlines on Thursday, March 7, Garcia posted a series of conflicting tweets. She first wrote that while her castmates “went too far,” she knew “their intentions were never to hurt me” and that “production handled it the way they did and it is what it is.” Later in the day, she changed her tune and tweeted, “After the reunion my career with MTV is OVER. I don’t need their s–t I promise u.”
Campbell, for his part, tells Us Weekly, “It was funny, and everyone was laughing — even Amanda. Only reason she cried at the end was because someone taped her mouth up, a little tape got in her hair, so it stopped. She only got upset because it was hard to get the tape out of her [hair] and [she] had to wash it out, which took ages. If it wasn’t for it getting in her hair, it would have never been an issue at all.”
Us Weekly has also reached out to MTV, Devenanzio and Christie for comment.
The Challenge: War of the Worlds airs on MTV Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
