Warning: spoilers ahead. Do not proceed unless you’ve watched the Season 2 finale of “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.”
JoJo Siwa has never quit anything in her life — until now.
The “Dance Moms” alum was one of 14 celebrities who signed up for Season 2 of “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” in which she and her fellow “recruits” were sent to New Zealand to undergo some of the most grueling challenges from the actual Special Forces selection process.
Siwa, 20, was one of the last remaining recruits standing — but voluntarily withdrew on the last day by asking to speak with the anonymous Umpire during the final stretch of interrogation challenges amid freezing cold temperatures.
Now, in an exclusive interview with Pvnew, Siwa explains why she gave up and whether she regrets her decision.
“It was after the first interrogation … I was sitting in the stress positions again and I just was thinking, ‘The one thing that I learned here was, like, personal life first.’ I knew that I had to break my habits,” she recalled.
“I went back and forth [on the decision] for a long time and honestly it occupied me for awhile. But then, finally, I was like, ‘If I really, truly am going to go home, put my personal life first, it’s time to shine and time to man up, ask for the Umpire,’” she continued, reiterating that she’s “never” been a quitter.
“The Umpire, too, was like, ‘You know you’re right there?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, but I want to change the way I live’ and that’s what I learned by being here.”
Siwa clarified, however, that putting her personal life first does not mean she’s taking a break from her dance, TV and performing career any time soon.
“My career is my baby. The only thing that will ever come in front of my career one day is my kids,” the “Dancing With the Stars” alum clarified.
“But I think it’s more just like, I would make choices to not go to dinner with my family ’cause it was ‘hard’ for me to go out. Which, it is, but now I’m like, ‘So what? It’s never going to be easy.’”
The finale episode ended with the three final recruits being told they passed selection from Directing Staff (DS) agents Rudy Reyes, Mark “Billy” Billingham, Jason “Foxy” Fox and Jovon “Q” Quarles — Tyler Cameron and Nick Viall from Bachelor Nation and Olympic speed skater Erin Jackson.
“That was one of the biggest accomplishments of my life,” Cameron, 30, explained of what it felt like to hear those words, despite feeling “so cold, miserable and distraught” in the moment.
“So many times in my life I’ve come this close. Whether it’s the NFL, ‘The Bachelorette’ [with Hannah Brown], whatever it was … I never bridged that gap. This show I was like, ‘I’m going to get through this whole thing.’ And that, to me, was like, ‘See, you can get to the other side.’”
The “Bachelorette” alum said in various confessionals throughout the series that he wanted to participate in the show to get a glimpse of what his brother has endured by being in the Army.
“I got a really cool text from my brother, it was after the boat carry, and it said, ‘It’s scary how good you are at this, and better than me at my own job,’” he shared of their private conversation.
“One, that was a great compliment for him to give me, but two, he also has to put in perspective, like, I know there’s no one at the end of this [actually] shooting at me. I don’t have to live in those scenarios, [he does]. I could never do that … but just to get a taste of it, was really cool.”
Siwa and Cameron also told us they both felt “different” after competing in such a mentally and physically challenging show.
“I needed it,” said Cameron, telling us he couldn’t wait to grab a beer and go out with his buddies the second it was over.
“I needed to get discipline back in my life, I needed to find that edge that I used to have. And when I came home, I was like, ‘I’m going to get up early, I’m going to start training, I’m going to do all these things,’ and I’ve done that … so it kind of keeps you accountable.”
Now knowing what the Fox series entails, the two also revealed which of their own celebrity pals they’d recruit to do the show next.
For Siwa, she said it would be “all” of the “Dancing With the Stars” pros she connected with while competing on Season 30 — like Jenna Johnson, Val Chmerkovskiy and Alan Bersten — while Cameron mentioned designer Galey Alix and fellow “Bachelorette” alum Jason Tartick.
“The Bachelorette people have been doing well on this show!” he exclaimed. “It’d be interesting to see how [Jason] does too.”
