MTV Johnny Bananas and Jay Starrett
One of the new rookies on season 35 of MTV’s The Challenge: Total Madness is Jay Starrett. Jay previously appeared on Survivor in 2016, Survivor: Millenials vs. Gen X. He didn’t win the show but finished in sixth place, lasting until Day 36 when he was eliminated.
What fans of The Challenge may not know, however, is that Jay Starrett used to date Morgan Willett, who is Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio’s current girlfriend. In fact, Jay actually accused Morgan of cheating on him with Johnny Bananas when she appeared on War of the Worlds as a rookie and Bananas’ Challenge partner.
Here’s what you need to know about the love triangle:
Jay Starrett Began Dating ‘Big Brother’ Star Morgan Willett in the Summer of 2018
Jay Starrett and Morgan Willett started dating in the summer of 2018, which ended after Morgan ghosted Jay. Morgan was the winner of Big Brother: Over the Top in 2016. She then appeared on Ex on the Beach 2 in late 2018, and Jay came on as one of her exes.
.@Jay__Qs & @morgan_willett may be the only couple leaving #ExOnTheBeach happy. Do you ship these two lovebirds? ❤️
The two left the show as a couple and continued dating for a few months, at which point Morgan left to film The Challenge: War of the Worlds. Morgan was partnered up with Johnny Bananas, but they didn’t stay on the show for long, getting eliminated in the third episode. After Morgan left for The Challenge, Jay accused her of cheating on him with Bananas.
Morgan and Bananas began dating soon after, although the relationship wasn’t confirmed for a while. On The Challenge‘s reunion show, Bananas said they were more than friends but less than lovers. The two then started posting pictures of each other traveling the world, and in October 2019 they appeared on the red carpet together for the premiere of Jay and Silent Bob Reboot.
Morgan has denied cheating on Jay and says that her romantic relationship with Bananas started after her breakup with Jay. During a podcast after the Ex on the Beach 2 reunion show, Morgan said: “The kind of odd thing about all that is obviously when we got off The Challenge I came home. I talked to Jay. We decided to be just friends. We were on good terms. Later on, he asked me about Johnny and I owned it. I was like, ‘You know what, I’ll be real. I’ve been seeing him. This happened,’ blah, blah, blah, and he was fine with it.”
On his side, Jay said after Ex on the Beach 2, he helped Morgan prepare for her appearance on The Challenge, but he got a call from Morgan’s sister who said that after Morgan was eliminated, she went on a two-week vacation with Bananas.
Since Jay and Bananas are now competing on the same season of The Challenge, it will be interesting to see if this history comes into play and is discussed by either competitor.
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