:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/Michele-Fitzgerald-Devin-Walker-081424-539c84fce86c47fd92c150ea24bc2b58.jpg "Michele Fitzgerald Says She 'Fought' Relationship with Devin Walker 'a Little Bit': 'I Was Cautious' (Exclusive) (1)")
- Survivor winner Michele Fitzgerald started dating Are You the One? alum Devin Walker after they both competed on The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras
- Fitzgerald tells PEOPLE that her connection with Walker "naturally moved" towards a relationship
- The reality TV star says she "felt a tremendous amount of pressure" coming into season 40 after the way she left things on season 39
Earlier this summer, Michele Fitzgeraldconfirmed she’s dating Devin Walker after the two competed onThe Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras. But she FitzgeraldPEOPLE she and Walker didn’t exactly hit it off from the start.
“We've had a bit of a rocky history and we have a little bit of history outside of the show,” the Survivor winner, 34, says. “I was cautious to get into another relationship on the show with my history.”
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Fitzgerald previously dated Survivor’s Wendell Holland and Dean Kowalski and had a showmance with Callum Izzardon The Challenge season 39. So when it came to getting into another relationship with a castmate, “I fought it a little bit,” she says of starting things up with Walker, 35. “But when you're stuck in a castle and there's a Prince Charming, you just have to.”
She feels like the connection with Walker built throughout filming Battle of the Eras in Vietnam.
“He's always been somebody who I just get along really well with," Fitzgerald says. "My first season, I went into the first elimination, I got to choose my partner. Out of all of the people that I could have chosen, I chose Devin. And the next season on Ride or Dies, I continuously tried to work with him and create alliances with him. He's hilarious and I think it just naturally moved in that direction.”
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(745x238:747x240)/Michele-Fitzgerald-060624-2-55fce0075ea549f8b6e6d5891ce87156.jpg "Michele Fitzgerald Says She 'Fought' Relationship with Devin Walker 'a Little Bit': 'I Was Cautious' (Exclusive) (2)")
Fitzgerald made her Challenge debut on season 37, , but jokes, “It's really amazing how much of a mess you can make in such a short amount of time.”
On season 39, Fitzgerald found herself balancing her relationships with Horacio Gutiérrez Jr., Olivia Kaiser and Nurys Mateo after Kaiser, 32, betrayed Gutiérrez’s girlfriend Mateo, 29.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2)/The-Challenge-40--Battle-Of-the-Eras-era-4-081424-8c7ca2f0e8f84ebbb0916e9b8abd8574.jpg "Michele Fitzgerald Says She 'Fought' Relationship with Devin Walker 'a Little Bit': 'I Was Cautious' (Exclusive) (3)")
“I think that that type of stuff will haunt you when you look back and you're like, ‘I should have played that differently,” Fitzgerald says. “The game moves so fast and sometimes you're not thinking about the repercussions of actions when you're in it. You have so many people that you're trying to appease, that sometimes lose yourself along the way. I think I'm really trying to be more cognizant of the chain reaction that my actions have.”
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The reality star also came into season 40 having history with Amanda Garcia and Laurel Stucky.
“I've been deemed a lot of things — snaky, manipulative, villainous, whatever it is — and I really went on to this season and I was like, I'm going to shed all the preconceived notions that I have myself and hopefully everybody else can give me the same grace,” Fitzgerald says. “Are me and Laurel going to be skipping through a meadow anytime soon holding hands? Probably not. We're working towards it.”
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2)/The-Challenge-40--Battle-Of-the-Eras-era-3-081424-fbb4becb03ba4ece9ffc515ac0d61407.jpg "Michele Fitzgerald Says She 'Fought' Relationship with Devin Walker 'a Little Bit': 'I Was Cautious' (Exclusive) (4)")
Fitzgerald started off season 40 strong by winning the first daily challenge alongside Gutiérrez, 28. The TV personality admits she “felt a tremendous amount of pressure” coming into Battle of the Eras since fans thought she “got a free ride far” on season 39 because she “played with all of my friends.”
“I really felt a ton of pressure to show that I wasn't just playing a social game, that also I could play a physical game as well,” she continues. “We all have different motivations for being there, and whatever drives you to put the fire under your ass is whatever it takes to motivate you to suffer out those conditions. Doesn't matter what it is.”
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Going up against many of the game’s biggest legends in Battle of the Eras added additional pressure.
“We play a very different game now,” Fitzgerald says. “It's fast paced and it's strategic and it looks a lot different. We were reminded a lot on the show from the earlier generations: this is supposed to be fun. There was a lot of pressure for us not only to compete well, but also keep the authenticity of what the foundation that they laid for The Challenge. Era 4, we stayed up the latest. — it was a continuous narrative of, this show's supposed to be fun. So we're out there having fun.”
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The Challenge 40: Battle of the Erasairs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.
