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Challenge: All Stars’ Leah Gillingwater Details Returning After Being ‘Shamed’ 18 Years Ago

Ready to go! Leah Gillingwater may not have been on reality TV in 18 years but she’s more than ready to compete on season 2 of The Challenge: All Stars.

During the Thursday, November 11, episode of Us Weekly‘s “Watch With Us: Challenge Edition” podcast, Leah, 41, explained that Kendal Sheppard told her she should join the first season of the Paramount+ spinoff, but she had no interest.

Related: See 'The Challenge: All Stars' Season 2 Cast From Their 1st Season to Now

“I was like, ‘Absolutely not,’ because I had a lot of things that were difficult to deal with,” the Real World: Paris alum told Us. “Then I saw my little Kenny make a comeback and she was like, ‘You have to do [season] 2.'”

The Challenge All Stars Leah Gillingwater Podcast
Paramount+

The New York native explained that she wanted that second chance, too.

“I am extremely fit. I am very strong,” Leah told Us. “I wanted to make, like, a physical comeback because C.T. [Tamburello] shamed me and kinda verbally beat the s–t out of me [on Inferno].”

Related: 'The Challenge' Stars Who've Won Multiple Seasons: Where Are They Now?

After butting heads as roommates on The Real World: Paris in 2003, CT, 41, and Leah continued that contentious relationship on The Inferno. On the night she was eliminated, he was in the stands yelling negative feedback at her.

“I don’t have bad blood with people. I don’t live my life that way. I will say this, though, given what I’ve gone through in life since then, I look back on all of the clips that people are posting about C.T. saying, ‘Hurry the f–k up’ and I’m like, ‘You shut the f–k up.’ I don’t regret that,” the reality star continued. “His life is so different. I don’t know how I would feel about seeing him. I would come in with open arms but he was verbally not kind at all. That resonates with me. … He’s a character, I suppose, in some ways. I don’t think that he would come up warmly and be like, ‘Hey, Le, I’m really sorry.’ I don’t think he would do that. I mean, he should.”

Leah stated that she would “never” close the door to a possible reconciliation, and she hopes to join a future Challenge so that could happen.

Challenge All Stars Leah Gillingwater Laterrian Wallace
Paramount+

“If I saw him in person, I would hope that he would be … loving and kind. During that elimination with Kendal, he was motherf–king brutal and that was, like, so f–king mean,” the mother of one said. “I would never cut [someone] down verbally that way. I would never do that. I don’t believe in that.”

As for her time in All Stars, fans will see that physically, she can compete, but the political game is difficult.

Related: 'The Challenge' Greats: Where Are They Now?

“I am very strong, but I didn’t have relationships in the house and that is what completely went against me,” Leah said. “Everyone knew each other, and I couldn’t chime into conversations with them. I was a bit of an outcast.”

For more from Leah, listen to the full podcast episode above.

The Challenge: All Stars season 2 premiere is now streaming on Paramount+.

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