Hannah Brown Adds Another Reality Title to Her Resume
'The Bachelorette' and 'DWTS' winner challenged herself as she's never done before.
In the past, we’ve seen Hannah Brown all gussied up for her TV appearances on The Bachelorette and Dancing with the Stars, but for her return to reality TV after a more-than-three-year absence, she put elegance aside, getting down and dirty on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test.
And it paid off. Hannah and former professional soccer player Carli Lloyd walked away victorious as the winners of Special Forces: World's Toughest Test, beating out the other 14 celebs who competed, including some very macho men!
"I have let fear win in the past but I’m so much more confident," Hannah said at the conclusion of the finale. "I’m just really proud to be standing here making it to the end, but I can not wait to have a real shower and wash my hair."
The FOX reality series puts 16 celebrities to the test—Danny Amendola, Mel B, Hannah Brown, Tyler Florence, Kate Gosselin, Dwight Howard, Montell Jordan, Gus Kenworthy, Nastia Liukin, Carli Lloyd, Beverley Mitchell, Kenya Moore, Mike Piazza, Dr. Drew Pinsky, Anthony Scaramucci and Jamie Lynn Spears—through some of the most grueling challenges from the playbook of the actual Special Forces selection process to see if they can measure up to the mental and physical challenges.
“I haven’t been on television in a while, so anything that I was going to do moving forward, I wanted it to be something that really makes sense of where I am in my life right now,” Hannah told Parade in this exclusive interview. “I have taken the time to work on myself and give myself time to really discover who I am now, how I want to become better. Special Forces really aligned with that, so I was excited. But also, of course, terrified because I didn’t know if I was really going to be cut out for it—and I really didn’t feel like I was cut out for it once I got there.”
During our conversation, Hannah also shared how she got into the right mindset to endure all the challenges, what she missed most from home, how doing Special Forces could lead to a new career as a motivational speaker, and more.
Related: Why Former Bachelorette Hannah Brown Can't Watch This Season of The Bachelor
What on earth made you want to join Special Forces?
I was equally excited and nervous to be on Special Forces. One thing that helped me want to do it, is it’s the first season, so I didn’t really know what to expect other than they really decided the show was about the recruits, anybody participating, to come out, learn more about themselves, and ultimately, become a better person after. And that really intrigued me.
Pete Dadds/FOX
When you were younger did you play a lot of sports? Do you consider yourself athletic other than dancing, which is a more graceful kind of athleticism, that doesn’t have the macho element that goes into Special Forces.
I only danced when I was younger, but I would say I was always athletic. I think I would have enjoyed being in sports when I was younger, but I think when you’re younger it’s just what works with your parents’ schedule, what they also probably enjoy. I enjoyed dance to an extent, but I think I would have really thrived in sports but didn’t really pursue that ever.
I don’t want to say [I was a] tomboy, but I secretly liked to surprise people with my athleticism, and I surprised myself sometimes. But still, I didn’t think I would be able to hang with professional athletes. But yeah, as a young girl, I think I always was interested in doing sports and more athletic things but really just didn’t other than working out for aesthetic reasons and loving the way that I felt after a hard workout. But that was really all the experience I had of really getting this physical.
It’s pretty obvious because I’m smiling through the whole thing. I don’t think I even know sometimes how to channel aggression. Because anything I ever did, you never wanted to look aggressive. You wanted to look as if you were dancing normally. You want to, how you said, look graceful. So, I think I definitely struggle with how to take that energy and put it into something that takes so much aggression and grit, but I guess I figured it out because I’m hanging in there.
Looking at the list of everybody that went home, there are several of the woman, but you’ve outlasted several of the men.
There were injuries involved, too, with a lot of people. I’m surprised that wasn’t what took me out because I’m the most accident-prone person there ever was.
Maybe knowing that about yourself, made you a little careful. But what was harder, the physical endurance or getting the mindset for, “I can tackle these things”?
I think the key to making it as far as I have in the show is definitely the mental game that you have to play. Of course, the challenges are physically draining, we’re exhausted every day. I think it’s very evident by the look on all our faces every scene. We’re completely drained but I think, “It’s, OK, you’ve done something really hard,” and then it’s over.
Then you have to mentally get yourself ready for, “OK I’m not getting to go home and take a hot shower and rest and recuperate.” No, it’s just as hard once we got back to our barracks, just trying to deal with life in the barracks. I think that was the part that was so hard. For me, it was the living conditions that were just really difficult.
Normally, when you do one hard thing it’s like, “OK, when I get home, I’m going to get a really good meal and sit down and chill out.” But that was just not the case. So, how I took the experience was just continually reminding myself that it was going to continue to get hard but it would be over soon.
Related: Dancing with the Stars' Hannah Brown Reveals She Eats Too Much Candy and She Can't Feel Her Feet!
What did you miss most? What was it that you felt most deprived about?
I missed feeling clean. Honestly. I’ll go a few days without washing my hair, but this was a little bit to an extreme. I had globs of sand stuck in my braids and my scalp was full of sand. We couldn't bring anything to shave our legs. I think I was growing hairy boots by that point. We had a bar of soap, a toothbrush, and some deodorant, and that was essentially it. That was really tough.
I also missed dry feet. My feet were always wet. You think you’re in a dry space but we’re always jumping in some type of water, doing something really physical, and so my feet were just completely destroyed by the end of it. Feeling clean was the thing that I missed the most.
CR: Pete Dadds/FOX
Did the thought ever cross your mind, “I can’t do this anymore,” or were you always able to mentally tough it out and say, “It’s going to be over soon.”
I had one moment that I was just like, “Wow, I don’t know how I’m going to continue to do this.” I had never been to the Jordanian desert before and done physically draining military-style workouts. So, I had not been in that type of heat, and it was making my extremities sweat extensively, my hands and my feet.
And so, like I said, my feet were destroyed by the end because they were constantly, it sounds gross, but wet with sweat. My socks were wet and my hands, I couldn’t grip on things because my hands were sweating. I was like, “What is going on?” And I was like, “I don’t know if I can go through this competition.”
Anytime we had, I wouldn’t call it a break, but when we weren’t doing a physical activity and we’re back in our little cots, I would just lay out like a starfish and just try to get some air and dry out. That was the thing that made me want to quit.
But everything to the point where we are in the season, I just told myself, even when I was like, “Ugh, I do not want to do this,” or “This is actually awful,” just to try to make it through it. I just really wanted to get the most out of the experience. For me, the whole quitting on your own, there might have been a really hard day, but Nastia Liukin told me that her dad told her, which I loved, was “Never quit on a bad day.” And I was like, “OK, this might be a really bad day, but who knows what’s coming?” That’s what I’ve learned for myself.
After doing Special Forces with everything that goes into it, you might be a great motivational speaker.
I would actually love to get into that. I think I’ve had a lot of life experiences in a very small time frame that have really taught me who I am, both good and bad, and made me take account of what I really want in life, my purpose and mission. I think that we all go through things. I think I’m a person that has to learn the hard way, but I have gained a lot of wisdom in my short 28 years of life. I would love to be able to encourage others, especially college and high school students.
Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test airs Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT on FOX.
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