‘The Challenge All Stars: Rivals’ star Sylvia regrets controversial fight with KellyAnne

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Challenge All Stars: Rivals episode 3, “Rivals in the Ruff.”

Sylvia Elsrode doesn’t regret causing drama at the beginning of The Challenge All Stars: Rivals, but she does regret the controversial comment she made to her partner KellyAnne Judd in the heat of their fight.

During last week’s episode, Sylvia quit the challenge, forcing her partner to DQ as well. When the reluctant teammates sat down to have a conversation about their issues with each other, it quickly turned into a screaming match. KellyAnne said that if Sylvia wasn’t willing to go all the way in the competition, she had other things she could be doing at home instead. Sylvia responded, “You have dogs. I have a family. Not the same.”

While the pair ultimately made up the next day, they were sent into elimination against Adam Larson and Steve Meinke, which they lost. Sylvia and KellyAnne left on shockingly good terms, but the online backlash to Sylvia’s comment during their fight has been severe, and she now tells Entertainment Weekly that she wishes she had used different words in that moment. Plus, she also wants people to stop calling her out for leaving her family to film this season.

“I came, I made a lasting impression, and then I went,” Sylvia says. “I know I get a lot of grief for leaving my three-month-old, but I would also like to point out that Leroy’s baby was born on the same day as my son, so he also left a baby at three months. It’s not just me, guys! But when given that opportunity, you take advantage of them. because you don’t know how many more opportunities you’ll get to do that kind of stuff.”

Below, Sylvia breaks down her controversial fight with KellyAnne, how she feels about getting thrown into elimination with no warning, and more.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How do you feel about how your entire season went now that you’ve seen all your episodes?

SYLVIA ELSRODE: I have not seen this most recent episode, but I would say that I wish that the apology and the argument were all in one episode, so maybe I would not get as much backlash that I got for a full week. But our rivalry, KellyAnne and I’s, was very real. And from what I gathered, that’s what people wanted — something that was more authentic and not so fabricated, and I definitely gave that to them.

Speaking of that, you’ve gotten a lot of heat for telling KellyAnne, “You have dogs. I have a family. Not the same,” in response to her saying that she has important things to do at home. What was it like seeing that moment in last week’s episode?

It’s tough. It was a very situational experience. Not something I’m proud of, but, obviously, when I’m upset or angry, I say mean things, and it’s definitely something that needs to be worked on. But also, we were in a very high tense situation. KellyAnne was really upset with me and disappointed because she really wanted to compete in this heights challenge. I felt that I did the best I could in that situation. I don’t want to blame it on being postpartum, but I was just three months postpartum, and I’ve never quit a challenge before, even extreme heights ones — I’ve always been able to talk myself into doing it. For this particular situation, I just mentally couldn’t get myself out there. And I felt like I tried to explain that to her and she wasn’t understanding that.

And I get it, she really loves heights. I really don’t, they’re hard for me. When this conversation had happened, there was already a lot of things boiling over for the both of us. And instead of just letting her say what she needed to say and believing in the “let her” theory, I chose to react a certain way. And I wish I would’ve chosen a better choice of words. I wish I would’ve said, “We all have better things to do,” or, “Yes, KellyAnne, I do too.” Instead of making her experience less than mine, I should have done better, but I fell short. She got the best of me, and it’s definitely a lesson learned. It’s not that I think her situation is less than mine. It’s different than mine.

What did you think of the swift backlash to your comment? Because other cast members have spoken out against the hate you’ve been getting.

It’s been pretty bad. I wish the editing would have [been different]. Yes, show the argument because it was real. But you could have also put the [apology] conversation in the same episode and not let me get berated for a week. But I also am a firm believer in, until you pay my mortgage or until you decide to pick up any one of my car payments or anything like that, your opinion is a grain of salt to me. I’ve got other problems to deal with than what somebody thinks of me on TV.

How are you and KellyAnne doing now?

We’re great. We actually talk through every episode. When all of this happened, she reached out and was checking in. Through our weddings — she got married a week before I did — we were talking back and forth, making sure we were doing well, because obviously that’s a lot going on. We are friendly with each other. I wouldn’t say we’re the best of friends, but we definitely check in on each other, so we’re good. There’s no bad blood between us.

It’s shocking how quickly you two were able to patch things up after that fight.

That conversation happened immediately after [the fight], the very next morning. So it’s not something that we waited a while to have.

What inspired you to sit down with her so soon after your fight?

I didn’t love my reaction to her, and I didn’t love the things I said to her. I knew, waking up, that was something that I wanted to have. I don’t want her to feel so miserable as to want to go home, and I know that what I said was unkind, so I definitely felt the need to have that conversation with her.

When Leroy and Devin sent you into elimination, you and KellyAnne both looked shocked. Did you have any advance warning?

This is so crazy — Devin and Leroy had pulled different teams in to have a conversation with them and they’re trying to barter, almost like, “What can you guarantee us?” KellyAnne and I were like, “What do we have to give you? We are not winning, we’re not communicating well — I don’t know if you guys saw this, we just had this huge blowout.” So it’s just crazy that we were thrown in because Devin comes in, he’s always talking about how he’s a champ, how he plays a cutthroat game. But in the grand scheme of things, he threw in another girl-girl team, for what? What was your purpose here? We weren’t a threat. He was never on our radar. I was shocked that we got thrown in… And it sucks because if we really think about it, had we beat Adam and Steve, then we would’ve been the ones with our name being thrown out there every single time [for the house vote]. So it stinks.

Since Adam was so sick, how were you feeling going into that elimination?

Oh, no. I knew even with Adam being sick, they’re still the team to beat. They’re so smart, both of them. I was like, “Oh, well, this is probably our goodbye, because they’re so good. There’s no way we’re beating them, even as positive as we try to be. We’re not winning. It is what it is.”

You did give them a run for their money though. You weren’t that far behind on the puzzle.

I was just praying, “Please just drop the chains. Just let the chain hit the ground,” because then you had to restart your whole time. But no, it didn’t work out in our favor. It sucks because I did really feel like KellyAnne and I were finally getting in our groove. Had we had the opportunity to stay a little bit longer, people would’ve been really shocked with how well we were going to be able to do. We would’ve proven to other people how good we could have been.

If you return for future seasons, what are you taking away from your experience this season?

If I ever do come back for more seasons, I’ll never quit a challenge again. Geez. I think that I need to be a little bit more open-minded to other people’s personalities. I’m a creature of habit, and I am just somebody that’s like, “I’ve got my friends. I don’t need anymore.” But I think I need to get out of that mindset, especially coming into these situations because it is about numbers and you don’t necessarily know everything that people are going through. So I don’t want to be that person anymore.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The Challenge All Stars: Rivals, which moved from Paramount+ back to MTV, airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

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