‘The Challenge’ star Reilly Smedley details post-season apology from Cara Maria Sorbello
Reilly Smedley received a post-season apology from Cara Maria Sorbello for the chaos that ensued during the second elimination on “The Challenge: Cutthroat.”
“She actually reached out to me like a couple months ago. And she was like, ‘Listen, I love you. I am so sorry if I misdirected you. It was never intentional,’” Smedley exclusively told Page Six.
“Me and Cara are amazing. I love Cara. She’s the best,” the “Big Brother” alum added.
However, Smedley, 27, said that Sorbello, 40, trying to direct her during the challenge only created more confusion — and thus caused Smedley to be eliminated against Deb Chubb.
“I was just listening and doing as I was told. And if I had used my own brain in that moment, then I probably would have made it further in the game,” Smedley explained.
“But Cara was trying to help. She didn’t intentionally misdirect me. It might have been a misstep, but it was not entirely on Cara why I ended up losing.”
Smedley added that Sorbello “genuinely feels terrible” about the outcome, but she “doesn’t hold a grudge” against her teammate.
In fact, Smedley said she appreciated Sorbello and the rest of the Blue Team helping her from afar in the challenge.
“Yeah, it gets confusing with everyone yelling at you and stuff — but it’s helpful in the moment when you have a different view of what you’re doing than they do,” she told us. “They have a bird’s-eye view. Also, they’ve done stuff like this before. Getting help from my teammates is exactly what I needed.”
Smedley also blamed the Blue Team’s extreme dysfunction on “internal issues” among its members, which mostly included fellow “Challenge” rookies.
“We were brand new. We had to learn everything about each other,” she stated. “On top of that, we were getting beat down with feeling like the underdog, losing Cedric right off the bat, then we get disqualified.”
“People weren’t getting along,” she added. “There was no chemistry. And that’s ultimately what led to the Blue Team’s downfall.”
Despite her early elimination, Smedley is grateful she had “a way more positive experience” on “The Challenge” than on “Big Brother 25,” where she was eliminated during Week 2.
“When you come in hot like that and you have to make the initial decisions and rip the bandaid off like I did on ‘Big Brother,’ people’s feelings are going to get hurt,” Smedley explained. “But I can understand why I left a bad taste in people’s mouths. I think I’ve healed those relationships now.”
She added, “But I do think that I really genuinely love my ‘Challenge’ cast. I definitely am not super pumped about how I did, but other than that, friendships are great.”
New episodes of “The Challenge: Cutthroat” drop Wednesdays on Paramount+.
