Sharing their stories. Ashley Mitchell fans were caught off guard during the Wednesday, November 10, episode of The Challenge: Spies, Lies and Allies, when host TJ Lavin announced that the two-time champ would be going home.
“Ashley has broken one of our rules. Because of that, Ashley is no longer able to stay in the game. She has been deactivated,” the athlete, 44, said during the episode. “She is no longer able to continue in this game for the rest of the season.”
After the episode aired, Mitchell, 34, took to Twitter. “Rules are rules and I respect @mtv and TJs call. The best apology is changed behavior. See you next time. I just want to thank everyone whose stuck with me through out this all,” she wrote at the time. “Everyone knows I’m only mad at myself and it has been so hard to shake off the depression and anxiety since getting home. I have been taking anger management and reflecting a lot. I love you yall so much.”
Devin Walker, who stars on the current season of The Challenge alongside Mitchell, spoke out following the mysterious elimination, first sharing his remarks via Instagram Story.
“Notice NOT A SINGLE PERSON including Amanda [Garcia] is coming to Ashley’s defense about why she was deactivated?” Walker, 32, posted on Friday, November 12. “Think maybe that’s for a reason? Think maybe a troll account with Ashley’s face as the profile pic isn’t a good source of accurate info? Josh [Martinez]/ myself/ Logan [Sampedro]/ anyone else had nothing to do with the repercussions of her hurtful, ignorant and misguided actions.”
He elaborated further on the matter during the Monday, November 15, episode of the “Challenge Mania” podcast.
“The truth does not matter often, anymore. We have, as a society, put the truth to the side. We have instead gone on feelings. ‘How are you feeling?’ That is the truth. That’s what actually is happening,” the Are You the One? alum, 32, shared at the time. “Right now, a lot of people are feeling upset that they don’t have all the information but it seems to them, by what they’ve pieced together, that Ashley was kicked off the show not for violence, but just for saying things. Then they go back throughout the years of the show and they’re like, ‘Well this person said this, this person said this, they weren’t kicked off. This seems unfair. This seems like she’s being targeted, maybe because she’s a woman.’ I can guarantee you that is not the case.”
Walker then explained that he feels the “situation was remedied the correct way,” by the network.
“That was gonna become much worse and it was gonna become much more toxic. From the beginning of the season, I noticed something a little off with Ashley and I think it probably would have been good for her to maybe take a break or just to relax. I don’t know what’s going on in her personal life,” the reality star continued. “Do I think Ashley’s a bad person? No. Do I think that she has, somewhere along the line, lost herself? Yes. I think that this situation is a really good example of that, but again, people that really identify with her as a character are taking this extremely personally.”
The network has not commented on the reason for Mitchell’s elimination, but that hasn’t stopped the cast from chiming in.
“I have not, and no one else has that I know of, been muzzled by this,” Walker added on Monday. “I am choosing not to discuss exactly what happened because it involves multiple parties and out of respect for all of those parties, I, who wasn’t involved in this situation, am not going to put their business out there. I would respect the same respect from them.”
Scroll down and see what the rest of the cast has said: