Setting the record straight. Although Tori Deal and Jordan Wiseley ended their relationship in November, they were still engaged while she was filming The Challenge: Double Agents.
Ahead of the Wednesday, January 6, episode, a preview was released that showed Fessy Shafaat and Tori in the hot tub together with a few other castmates — and cut to a very surprising confessional by the 29-year-old Big Brother alum.
“I’m getting to know Tori and we honestly have a genuine connection in here. In my rookie season, she was with Jordan the whole time, so we never really got to speak,” Fessy said in his confessional. “She’s a very dope woman, and she is a very good-looking woman.”
Cory Wharton then added, “There’s something going on between those two. I know Tori’s engaged but it’s not looking good. My man Fessy has always been attracted to Tori, and now you can see that they are definitely working together.”
After the clip dropped online, Tori, 27, took to Instagram to clear the air. “Uhmmm… I see how this is all being edited… but just because Fessy admits he’s attracted to me doesn’t mean I cheated,” the Are You the One? vet wrote via her Instagram Story on Tuesday, January 5. “I never cheated on Jordan. So everyone needs to chill out.”
She continued, “I just want you all to know that I’m mentally strong enough to handle all of this bulls–t. After 4 years of reality TV you grow some thick ass skin. I know my truth and who I am. I could go deeper into detail about everything but I don’t have to prove anything to people that have already made their minds up about me.”
Later in the episode, Fessy admitted that he was “feeling Tori” but added, “she has a man back home so I will never cross that line.”
On Thursday, January 7, Tori responded again to the editing on the show during an episode of MTV’s “Official Challenge Podcast,” telling cohost Aneesa Ferreira, “All of a sudden, I hear this interview that Fessy’s got feelings for me. Didn’t know that was going on because that s–t was happening in an interview!”
Later in the episode, the New York native added that while it looked like they “had something going on,” that wasn’t the case.
“Look at the f–king footage. You don’t see me flirting back. You see Fessy talking about me in his interviews,” Tori said to Aneesa. “Yeah, we might be near each other. OK, so what? He was your partner, you’re my best friend. Obviously, I’m going to be around you guys.”
When the topic of Fessy and Tori began a conversation on Twitter, a fan shared photos that appear to be of the pair on vacation together in Turks and Caicos shortly after she announced her split from Jordan.
In late November, Tori and Jordan posted via Instagram about their amicable split, with Tori noting that there wasn’t “one big thing” that caused the end of the relationship. “The reality of some relationships is that there can be a lot of little things that slowly build up over time,” she wrote. “All of those little incidents showed us that we each need our own space.”
To make the situation even messier, Fessy’s ex-girlfriend, Haleigh Broucher, who he met while filming Big Brother 20, claimed via her Patreon account that she and Fessy were actually still together when he went on the show until she received a call in October.
“We never agreed for him to move but we agreed that we needed more space together than a small apartment so I was creating it,” her Patreon message reads. “I had gotten groceries with his favorite meals and was ready to go pick up my partner on the 30th so we could start our real life. I knew my relationship was not perfect, but we had agreed to fix it and work on it after he showed up at my apartment before he left.”
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“We agreed to tell everyone we were fixing it,” the Texas native, 23, continued. “The first steps were just getting him home and then we were going from there. And from my weekly phone calls filled with love I had no reason to assume anything had changed. I’m not trying to paint anyone into anything they aren’t.”
She ended her post with, “I wish I could say I wish him the best but I don’t and never will.”
The Challenge airs on MTV Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
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