“The Challenge: Cutthroat” star Alexis Lete revealed her showmance with Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio was more of a “slow burn” than what was shown on TV.
“The showmance happening in the second episode… I was like, ‘I don’t think that happened until episode four or five,'” Lete exclusively told Page Six ahead of the Season 42 finale next week.
“So this is interesting to see it so early on, especially after I said this is bulls–t,” she continued. “Everyone’s like, ‘Wait, how did this happen?’ It didn’t happen like that, y’all. It was a slow burn.”
Howver, Lete said she’s not upset by the slight editing manipulation because she knows the producers “want people to get interested and invested” early in the season.
Lete, 29, explained that her relationship with Devenanzio, 44, actually started in a “funny and interesting” way when she borrowed his clothes to dress up as “Oliver Clothesoff” for Tori Deal’s birthday.
“I used his clothes, a few days later, I left a note and I was like, ‘Thank you for letting me use your douchey clothes.’ And then he wrote a little love letter back and he was like, ‘Wait, does this mean you like me?’ And I just put ‘maybe,'” Lete recalled.
“And that’s how I ended up in the bathtub because he was like, ‘Oh my gosh, put a bikini on come meet me here,'” she continued. “But that’s ultimately where it was starting to get a little spicier, I would say.”
Lete admitted that while she doesn’t know Devenanzio that well, outside of watching him on TV, she likened their bond to “a middle school crush relationship.”
In fact, Lete confirmed that the pair “tried” to date after the show, even after Devenanzio told her during filming that “he wasn’t in a space to have a relationship or have a girlfriend.”
“So, I knew going out of the house that it wasn’t gonna lead to anything,” the “Deal or No Deal Island” alum explained. “And I think he tried to explore if it would, but ultimately, if someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time. So we’re just friends now.”
Lete told us that while she enjoyed her fling with Devenanzio, he wasn’t her top choice for a showmance.
“I was not interested in Johnny at all. Even on his podcast, he’s like, ‘You went for CT before me. You thought Josh was cute before you wanted me. So I was like option five,'” she shared.
“I just didn’t picture myself being interested in him,” Lete went on. “I had heard a lot of stuff going into it. And I also noticed that he’s a pot stirrer, and I was like, ‘I don’t know if I want to be in all this drama.'”
But Lete said that she and Devenanzio “didn’t have drama” with each other the whole game, so their relationship ended up being a “nice escape from the game.”
“The Challenge: Cutthroat” finale airs next Wednesday on Paramount+.