Reality Star Lauren Coogan revealed that with barely a week into season 37 of The Challenge, she has not only exited the show but was also edited out of the season premiere and replaced by Amber Borzotra. This season’s format of The Challenge features teams of two–a man and a woman–where one member (like Lauren) is an international contestant and the other member is an American. Already this season, Josh Martinez has orchestrated the departure of another male show member, Kele ‘Kelz’ Chidyke.

MTV created The Challenge from two of its popular reality shows, Road Rules and The Real World. This new formula has proven to be a hit. It was in the second episode of the popular reality show, which took place in lovely Vrsar, Croatia, that Lauren’s partner, Josh, found out about her departure and her quick replacement. So even though the new season is just a few days old, the breakdown of the teams has already been shaken up.

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Regarding her sudden departure from the show, and her removal from the season premiere, Lauren used some very strong language in her tweets: “All jokes aside, I got gaslit and scapegoated on two major networks within the same month. My anxiety skyrocketed, my mental health was literally in shambles and this led me to an identity crisis of sorts.” Lauren went on in her tweet to further allude to the on-set strife on The Challenge: “Reality TV is supposed to be a source of entertainment and fun. To break the monotony of real life for the audience. We didn’t sign up to be role models or politicians.“

In addition to her tweets, during a recent Instagram Story Q&A, Lauren elaborated on her sudden departure just as the season was getting underway, but still remained vague about the reasons: “I don’t really want to answer because it was so traumatic and led me into a lot of therapy, and counseling and the worst time of my life.”

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The veteran reality show star, who appeared on Love Island before being cast on The Challenge, was clearly upset over being dropped from the show and then edited out of the season premiere. To provide some context, she claims she was “gaslit,” which refers to the premise of the famous 1944 movie Gaslight starring Ingrid Bergman, which has to do with manipulating someone by psychological means into questioning their own sanity. Strong words indeed. And even though her former teammate Josh did not mention Lauren directly, John did already reveal a number of “messy hookups.”

A thick skin is a necessary part of being a star on any reality show, and Lauren was able to easily handle Love Island and the inherent drama of that relationship show. But clearly, something on The Challenge shook Lauren up. Lauren does not want to burn any bridges behind her, and when asked in her Instagram Q&A about the possibility of returning to The Challenge in the future, she ended with a “never say never” mentality. Only time will tell if fans will be able to see Lauren on their TV screens again.

The Challenge airs Wednesdays at 8pm on MTV.

Sources: Lauren Coogan/Twitter, Lauren Coogan/Instagram

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DJ Freedman
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DJ is a graduate from the University of Southern CA with a Master’s in Film and TV Production. He currently serves as a producer for all five (yes, there are five now) Critics Choice Awards and serves as coordinator for all the nominating committees. DJ created and produced a movie and TV review show for public television and was on the production team at Crackle TV for originals such as Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld.

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DJ is a platform and springboard diver and coach and is in flight school at the University of Hawaii in Hilo.

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