‘The Challenge’ Star Olivia Kaiser on Running the Season 41 Final While Seven Weeks Pregnant and When She Found Out She Was Expecting

“The Challenge” Season 41 comes to an end on Dec. 3 and one outcome has already been spoiled: Olivia Kaiser was pregnant during filming. The “Love Island” alum welcomed her first child, Atlas, with boyfriend Theo Campbell, who also competed in the final, on Nov. 20.

“Obviously, I was not pregnant going into the show — you cannot compete if you’re pregnant,” Kaiser told Variety during a Zoom interview on Tuesday, while her son napped on her lap. She revealed that she conceived during the first week of “Vets & New Threats,” during Derek Chavez’s birthday party, which was shown in the Aug. 13 episode.

“As you see in the whole season, I started out with a lot of steam. I kind of lost it halfway through, and it’s because I was so tired. I started to get so lethargic,” Kaiser said. However, since she wasn’t doing well in the game — “I was getting so abused by everyone, and there’s only so much someone can take,” she added — so she chalked her lack of energy up to that. “I definitely will admit that I was not as strong and confident as I was going into the season. The first trimester is exhausting and hard. I knew something was up. I just didn’t know what. I thought I was getting depressed from the house, so I was sleeping a lot, and now looking back, it makes so much sense. I was running out of breath really quickly.”

Kaiser does say that there was one point during the season where she wondered if she was pregnant, but then the cave challenge (which aired Nov. 12) happened.

“Will [Gagnon] and I were going down, and I fell so hard. I went to the bathroom after that, and I was bleeding. I had phantom periods, so I didn’t think I was. I was also so skinny, I didn’t look any different,” she said, later learning that it was implantation bleeding. “Also, Theo and I did not get freaky in the house often!”

After the finale was filmed, Kaiser said that she and Campbell stayed in Chile for an extra two days to relax. It was then that she started feeling crampy, but had no other symptoms. Still, she decided to go get what she thought was a pregnancy test.

“It was in Spanish! It was a week of gestation test. So I took it, and I couldn’t look at it. Theo’s like, ‘What is it supposed to say?’ I said, ‘Well, does it say a plus?’ He says, ‘It says plus three,’ which meant I was over three weeks pregnant,” she laughed. “We got home, and at my first appointment, I was eight weeks and five days pregnant. So hiking that mountain, I was seven weeks pregnant.

“Not even to boost myself up, I’m just talking for all women: We are badass. Because that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I did it pregnant. And childbirth? It is no joke. I’ve never felt pain like that.”

Kaiser, who’s competed in four seasons of “The Challenge,” will now take a “hiatus” from the game to spend time with her son, but hopes to return in the future. “I’m a person who’s driven by purpose. I have the biggest purpose now, and I want to fight for him,” she said. “I want to see where that gets me.”

The finale of “The Challenge: Vets & New Threats” airs on MTV at 8 p.m. ET.