Who is “them”? That’s what everyone was working to find out on the latest episode of The Challenge: All Stars Rivals on Wednesday (March 12) night. On his way out last time, Corey Lay told Amber Borzotra it was Veronica Portillo and Katie Cooley playing vote whisperer, which was a bit of a surprise considering Amber had been working with Veronica.
While the OG pair denied being the secret ringleaders of the house vote, they proved it to be true when they turned the house vote yet again — this time, by convincing Nicole Zanatta and Melissa Reeves to target Amber and Faysal Shafaat instead of Frank Sweeney and Sam McGinn, as they’d planned.
Since Veronica and Katie also managed to win the daily challenge, they thus had all the power and chose to send in Nany Gonzales and Turabi “Turbo” Çamkıran to make the arena an especially competitive one, and unfortunately, Amber and Fessy were sent home.
So how did Amber really feel about finding out the hard way who “them” really was? And would she ever partner with Fessy again? TV Insider caught up with Amber Bortroza to find out!
Fessy recently said he would have picked you as a partner over anyone else, even if he had a choice of a male partner. Do you feel the same way about being paired with him, are you guys still on good terms now?
Amber Borzotra: Yeah, honestly. I think, just his intelligence, he has the brains, he is a force to be reckoned with physically, so if you lay it all out, he’s the whole package — besides the eating part, which we both aren’t good at. He’s the whole package when you want to have a partner sometimes in these things, so yeah. And it’s so nice to hear that coming from Fessy because there are a lot of times I didn’t even want to hear him speak, so I’m happy that he’s saying something nice about me. It feels good because, honestly, I never thought that he even thought that way. But yeah, I would definitely pick Fessy. I know how he is as a partner, and I think that was what was scaring me more because I was his partner in the past, and I felt like I had to prove myself, and I had to compete on his level, and that I think was more intimidating than being his partner. Of course, I would love to be his partner in a game like this.
He also said that production told you guys that — in response to people complaining about you guys and others being strong teams — the fittest team won’t win. Do you recall that, and what did you think of that?
I feel like it can be anyone’s game. I think that’s kind of where they’re coming from when they say that. It’s like, “Don’t think because we’re fit, strong, any of that [it’s a given].” The checkpoints matter, stuff like that. It could be anyone’s game, it could be anyone’s win. I feel like that’s kind of how they make these things and all on All Stars — just on The Challenge in general.
This season, a lot of the dynamics were about the social game, and you found out towards the end that Veronica was playing a different game than she seemed to be around you. What did you feel about how she was playing, and what she did with Melissa and Nicole to swing their vote?
Honestly, I think I was just hurt more than anything. Game move? Great. I’m so for it when it comes to the game. But I think I just took it so personally because I’m like, “Man, I thought we were working together.” We talked before even going into the game and we’re like, “Hey, let’s look out for each other” type of thing. I think that I’m a very loyal player, so I’m like, “Okay, I got you, I got you” — or at least I was trying to be a very loyal player. I don’t think you can be so loyal always in these games, but to the people that I told like, “Hey, you’re good with me” [I was loyal]. And so I think that just hurt me more than anything. I was cool with the game move, though, ’cause at the same time, we did need to go in at some point and get a star. So I’m down to go in. I was down to go in. I am just hurt because I made friends this season. I felt that the whole house, that everyone was turning on me, and the people that I was working with were turning on me — or at least I thought I was working with, I should say. But yeah, that’s just it. It was just me being sad that I thought I had allies.
So you said you were willing to go in. What was your thought whenever you found out it was gonna be Nany and Turbo?
Well, Nany sends me home all the time. It doesn’t matter if she says my name or she’s going against me. Anytime she has said my name — and now I went against her — she is sending me home. So that’s already bad luck. So Nany being down in the sand with Turbo, they’re a strong team, and I feel like Nany’s just — I’ve done, I think, almost every season with her, and she is just this… She just doesn’t give herself so much credit sometimes. She is a beast, and I’m just honestly — if we had to lose against anyone, I’m happy it was Nany and Turbo, and Turbo got his first elimination win, so that made me happy. I need to double-check, but I think it was his first elimination win. So yeah, that made me happy. But yeah, I think just the pressure, and then also me and Fessy aren’t good at puzzles. A puzzle is not my thing. It just wasn’t ours, but that’s okay.
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With your regard to your friendship with Nany, Fessy made a comment that you’d had more friendships with the women of the cast this season. Can you talk about like why that was?
I don’t even know. I feel like going into the season, I was just so sure of myself. I was just very okay with — I have a daughter to go home to, you know what I mean? I was just very like, “I’m a mom now, I have this little human that loves me so much.”… And also just now having more knowledge about my [autism] diagnosis, it made me feel like there’s nothing wrong with me, when before I was like, “What’s wrong with me? … There’s something wrong with me.” Questioning myself all the time. So it made me kind of highly mask… Even if I did feel uncomfortable to try making friends — before I would isolate, I would kind of just be by myself before — when that anxiety came, I would know how to calm myself down and stuff like that. And I feel like just knowing that, I’m not judging myself, I don’t care who’s judging me that’s around. So I needed to stop putting that pressure on me with questioning who I am. So I went in just telling myself I love who I am. I am proud of who I am. I have this beautiful daughter of mine that’s my best friend that loves me to pieces. So I’m doing something right, you know what I mean? So it was kind of just that overall… The game is just, that’s the part where I feel like it’s been hard for me, just connecting in that way and having relationships and allies. So it felt good. It was a different feeling and I didn’t know. I feel like the season was — it made it fun for me for that overall, for sure.
Can you give us a status update on your friendships or relationships with Aneesa [Ferreira], Veronica, and Frank?
So Frank and I, we talk all the time. I love Frank… Whenever the season everything was done, he reached out and gave me his number. We connected, we talked, and I get the game. I can’t be mad at the game. … Again, it was just a hurtful situation because I felt like, “Oh, I have allies,” but I couldn’t [contend with] the other relationships that have been there longer. But I love Frank, adore him.
Me and Aneesa, I did reach out to her, and I apologized for throwing her in and I was like, “Listen, I’m so sorry if I upset you I hurt you.” I don’t ever want to be the reason that someone’s hurt or upset. So I reached out to her… We’re at a good place, and we’re going to try working in the future, I think, on our connecting and trusting each other, hopefully, when it comes to the game. But I think moreso, we just need to build a connection when it comes to Aneesa and kind of get to know each other. It’s kind of like me and Fessy at first. I really didn’t get to know him or care to get to know him, and now I feel like I need to — hopefully, we can connect and get to know each other.
And with Veronica, we talked, and I just feel like… me and her are cool. There’s no bad blood between anyone. I’ve reached out, she reached out… We both connected and talked. That’s the thing; I’ve talked to all these people, and I love all of them. There’s no bad tension, nothing like that. So yeah, we’re in a good place as far as I know.
With Frank, at the nomination ceremony, you spoke out pretty heatedly against him. What’s it like looking back at yourself getting so fired up?
I’m the kind of person like, I hate confrontation, first of all. I hate it. But I felt like, in that moment, it was a familiar feeling where it’s me against the whole house, and I was so tired of it. I’m like, “Dang! For once I thought I had friends and allies!” … I was so hurt. I wanted to call him out because me and Frank, a few days even prior to any of this, there was some kind of wedge between us. I was hearing some things that he knew, that I felt like he never even told me that had to do with me and my partner in the game and stuff like that, and just connecting dots… I wish I caught onto him and Veronica sooner. But I was so onto him, and so I just wanted to call him out in front of everybody and it was like, I don’t want to talk to him and pull him to the side. I wanted everyone to hear what I’ve got to say. So yeah, I just felt hurt, and I just wanted to have the floor. And that’s that’s what I did. I just wanted to take it from there and just let him know how I felt, because it was either me or him, so.
Adam Larson, of all people, said that he was rooting for you guys to win the elimination and possibly wanted to ally with you if you came back. Would you have worked with him?
It’s just so hard because I feel like I haven’t really — I don’t know what all was [going on], I haven’t seen that episode yet, but I can speak for what I felt when I was there. I think that just by hearing some stuff and knowing again that we’re also a strong team, and where do we fall also on that bracket with everybody else that he’s connected with? I don’t know. I would really have to hear him out… We would have to have a sit-down conversation. I would really like to see where that would go and how long that would last. But I couldn’t say for sure. Like if it’s gonna benefit my game, cool. If not, no.
The Challenge, Wednesdays, 9/8c, MTV