by Gina Scarpa

On the season finale of The Challenge: Battle of the Exes, teams raced across an Icelandic glacier for the finish line. Along the way, they ate a deer's head, ran in snowshoes, crawled through an ice hole, completed puzzles, and scaled a mountain. Just your typical, insane final! Had it not been for CT losing energy and stamina along the way, he and Diem may have won but it was Johnny and Camila who took home the grand prize. We talked to Diem and Camila, who both rocked it this season, to find out more about what brought them back, their relationships with their partners, and making it through the final.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What were your feelings about coming back to do another Challenge and being paired with CT and Johnny as your exes?
A. Diem: I think, for me, I hadn't done the show in a long time. I kind of wasn't really jumping the gun to come back. I had been so focused on MedGift so when they called me, I was like, "Man, they're really eager to get me on this one. This is really strange!" Then, I get there and I was like, "You little liars!" There's my ex I haven't spoken to in years and it was just awkward. I wanted to run when I realized that I needed to compete with this person. I think as an ex, you also have that level of being comfortable yelling at each other. During challenges, that's hard to suppress and that definitely came out. Very childish, but very real.

A. Camila: Basically, they called me and I didn't really know what the show was going to be about. I basically came out of nowhere and I was just lucky to get on it from Spring Break Challenge. I've been at a disadvantage because I didn't have people from my season, no one to back me up. I've been sent home early and I said, "As long as they keep inviting me, I'm going to keep coming back." I knew Johnny was a good athlete and we weren't really exes so we were looking forward to it. I went in excited and things got twisted here and there between me and him, but it's all good. I went in excited to win.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: You both have done several challenges - which format do you like the best? Do you prefer teams, partners, or individual?
A. Diem: I personally like individual and partners. The Duel is my favorite format by far because it's all up to you. I don't really like team challenges because it seems very political but partner challenges is good because you can trust this one partner.
A. Camila: I've been on a team and partner challenge. I really wanna do an individual. On Cutthroat, I picked Dunbar and he basically picked the rest of the team and he knew exactly who was who and that was my biggest disadvantage. I almost got to the final, but oh well.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: I've been watching The Challenge ever since the beginning, since Battle of The Seasons and Battle of the Sexes. This, by far, looked like the most brutal final in the history of the show. How did the two of you feel about it, in comparison to seasons past?
A. Diem: By far, the worst final they've ever come up with. Like, literally maniacal. For one, it's this crazy atmosphere. Jumping in the water, originally, we had to dunk our head in the water and the medic was like, "No no no! You're going to have a heart attack!" You start freaking out and just looking at the water, you're freezing. You're sleeping overnight and you're still wet. I'm allergic to meat, I haven't eaten it since the 6th grade, and I was getting sick at every checkpoint because I haven't had it in forever. It was mental torture and physical torture but in a weird, sick way, I loved it! It's a sick high that you get.
A. Camila: I don't have anything to compare to. This is my first final but it's definitely the hardest thing I've done in my entire life. If you've been in a final before, you kind of know what to expect. You know you're going to go through this enormous exhaustion but I had no idea! The most I've ever run is three miles and I almost died! I'm not a big runner. I don't train like that.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: What was really great about this final was that all three teams were strong, and the girls kicked some serious butt! What does that mean to the two of you, to be role models as strong, competitive women?
A. Diem: Oh my god! And I think Camila can attest to this. I was like, "Listen girls, you cannot be a doormat to these guys." I get nervous to go on these shows because I see the girls bow down to these guys and I'm like, no. That is something that was huge to me. I don't care if someone calls me a feminist. Being a strong girl is important. I wanted to make sure that my vote was heard and we were doing things my way. I wanted people to see that it wasn't the guys ruling the entire time. Doing this final was awesome because you saw three really strong teams where the girls were really, really strong. I think that's a huge thing to show. And might I add, Camila and I beat CT up the mountain!
A. Camila: On our own show, the guys look like the big heroes and that's so not true. Even Aneesa and Rachel, two women... I feel like that really portrayed us as strong powerful women and brought a change to what the challenges are used to. I love it and I wanna keep it going. I don't want it to stop. I want this to be a thing and show that women are powerful. It's not being a feminist. It's just reality.

Q. Gina, RealityWanted: Do you have another Challenge in you?
A. Diem: That's a hard question because I have a love/hate relationship with it. You love it when you're done with it in a weird way.
A. Camila: And you watch the season go by and you're like, "Oh, I really wanna do another one!"

Tune in to The Challenge: Battle of the Exes reunion special, Wednesday at 10/9c on MTV.

(Image courtesy of MTV)

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