After officially retiring from MTV’s The Challenge earlier this year, Leroy Garrett is opening up about what led to him making that big decision in his life.
Based on a video the former Real World and Challenge star shared, an incident during his Dirty 30 season of MTV’s show seriously impacted him and ultimately led to his decision to leave the show years later.
In his video, he indicated he “finally wanted to forgive” himself for “not taking a stand” previously against the incident where a castmate was “racist” and “violent” towards him, and production did nothing to step in but actually rewarded her.
Leroy Garrett opens up about Dirty 30 incident in video
Leroy, 36, surprised fans with an announcement ahead of The Challenge: Double Agents as he revealed it would be his final season on MTV’s show.
That was his 12th season competing in the reality series, after originally appearing in MTV’s The Real World: Las Vegas (2012). He reached the Double Agents final, his fifth time for The Challenge, but failed to win the season, finishing in third place.
Based on Leroy’s recent video on his Instagram page, many fans continually ask why he retired, suggesting he has so much more to give competitively. However, Leroy said it was a big decision that stemmed from an incident in his eighth season of the show, Dirty 30 in 2017 that weighed on him for years.
“Hey everyone… I finally decided to speak up about my reasoning for retiring from The Challenge on MTV. This has been weighing on my [mind] for years, and now it’s time to break free. I finally wanted to forgive myself for not taking a stand. I no longer live with regret or fear. This was the first step in my healing process, from what happened to me while filming the season of Dirty 30 on The Challenge,” Leroy shared in his caption.
In Leroy’s video, he talks about the incident involving his Challenge castmate, Camila Nakagawa, who became belligerent in one Dirty 30 episode while drunk and walked into a room where Leroy was talking to his castmates.
When she started going at Leroy, he said he wasn’t going to argue with her at that moment. She kept going and as he attempted to speak to her about how she was acting, she called him a “Black motherf*****g p***y” as part of her rant.
Moments later, she erupted after getting hit by a pillow Johnny Bananas tossed at her on her way out of the room. Camilla returned to ask who threw it at her, before hitting Leroy with the pillow, which prompted Challenge security to intervene.
A video called Camilla going off at Leroy is currently on YouTube, which shows three minutes of footage from the episode.
Leroy says of experience, ‘That’s not a company that loves you’
In his Instagram video, Leroy said he was upset that he had to bring up Camila’s “racist rant” and behavior towards him the next day, rather than the producers of MTV’s The Challenge doing something about it.
“I thought, ‘What the hell is going on? No one is about to talk about what happened?’ Imagine that,” Leroy said, adding, “The producers didn’t tell TJ [Lavin] to say something. I have to say something. I was the victim last night, and I have to bring up why something happened to me and basically force someone to apologize — someone who wasn’t going to do it on their own. Mindblowing to me.”
After the incident happened, Camila remained part of the Dirty 30 season, despite her remarks toward Leroy and her violent behavior. She’d go on to become one of the two winners for that season, receiving $450,000 in prize money.
“Do you know how much that burned me up inside? The fact that this girl went on a whole racist rant and was violent towards me. ‘You guys allow her to stay on the show, which is a privilege’ It’s a privilege to be on MTV. It’s also a privilege for MTV to have us as cast members,” he said.
“So you basically rewarded her for being racist and being violent. That makes no sense. I’ve seen people get sent home for less,” Leroy said.
“That’s not a company that loves you,” Leroy also said in his video, indicating that MTV’s The Challenge tried to make everything seem OK after the incident, including asking if he needed to “see a therapist.” Leroy said it didn’t sit well with him that they handled things in that manner.
Dirty 30 was Camila’s final regular-season appearance on MTV’s show. She also appeared in two spinoff installments with Champs vs. Pros and Champs vs. Stars, each of which involved competitors playing for charity. She got disqualified from the latter spinoff season, which was in 2018.
Leroy indicated in his video that the incident involving Camila is something he’s “tried to get away from” and “tried to block out” of his mind for years.
“It definitely sucks that the network didn’t have my back, and that’s something that I have to live with,” he said, also sharing he felt better in talking about the incident more in his video.
“Even though this happened years ago, this is still trauma that I live with today,” Leroy said, adding, “Speaking about this now actually makes me feel a lot better.”
Leroy’s Challenge castmates react to him opening up
With Leroy sharing his story and how the incident impacted him, many castmates responded with comments on his Instagram video post, where they apologized, praised him for sharing the story, and offered support.
That included his biggest supporter, girlfriend Kam Williams, who said she was proud of Leroy for speaking out about what affected him.
Several of Leroy’s castmates from The Challenge: Dirty 30 season also commented in support of Leroy.
Johnny Bananas was one of his castmates during that season and has been a longtime friend of Leroy’s. He featured Leroy on the October 28th episode of his podcast, where Leroy also spoke about the Dirty 30 incident.
“It breaks my heart that you’ve had to live with this pain for so long. I’m sorry I didn’t do more for you in the moment ?,” Bananas commented on Leroy’s post.
Marie Roda also appeared in the Dirty 30 season. She mentioned hearing about Leroy’s story during Johnny Bananas’ podcast and said she’s “proud” to call Leroy a friend and stands with him.
“I heard you speak on this on Johnny’s podcast and it broke my heart that you went so long without sharing how you felt. I’m proud to call you a friend. I stand with you,” Marie commented.
Aneesa Ferreira was another one of Leroy’s castmates for The Challenge: Dirty 30 season. She commented that she wished “we could’ve done more to support you” after the incident.
“Forever an ally….& Ill forever regret not doing more that night.. . I love you so much fam and I’m so proud of you & the man that you are…,” Leroy’s Dirty 30 castmate Jemmye Carroll commented.
Since leaving The Challenge, Leroy has been focused on his barbershop and other business opportunities in Houston, Texas, where he lives with girlfriend Kam Williams. While Leroy said he’s retired from The Challenge, Kam appears likely to return, although it’s unknown if that will occur in Season 38 or after that.
The Challenge: Spies, Lies & Allies airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on MTV.
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