Olivia about being seven weeks pregnant during the finale

Season 41 of The Challenge comes to a close on December 3, and one outcome has already been ruined: Olivia Kaiser was pregnant during filming. The “Love Island” alum welcomed her first childAtlas, with friend Theo Campbell, who also participated in the final, on November 20.

“Obviously I wasn’t pregnant when I went on the show — you can’t compete if you’re pregnant,” Kaiser shared Variety during a Zoom interview Tuesday, as her son napped on her lap. She revealed that she became pregnant during the first week of ‘Vets & New Threats’, during Derek Chavez’s birthday party, which was featured on the August 13 episode.

“As you can see, I started the whole season with a lot of strength. Halfway through I lost it a little bit, and that’s because I was so tired. I started to get so lethargic,” Kaiser said. But because she wasn’t doing well in the game — “I was so abused by everyone, and there’s only so much anyone can take,” she added — so she attributed her lack of energy to that. “I definitely have to admit that I wasn’t as strong and confident as I was going into the season. The first trimester is tiring and tough. I knew something was up. I just didn’t know what. I thought I was getting depressed away from home, so I slept a lot, and now that I look back, it makes so much sense. I got out of breath very quickly.”

Kaiser does say that there was a moment during the season where she wondered if she was pregnant, but then the cave challenge (which aired on November 12) happened.

“Shall [Gagnon] and I went down, and I fell so hard. I went to the bathroom afterwards and I was bleeding. I had phantom periods, so I didn’t think so. I was also so thin, I didn’t look any different,” she said, and later learned that it was implantation bleeding. “Besides, Theo and I didn’t often go crazy in the house!”

After the finale was filmed, Kaiser said she and Campbell stayed in Chile for an additional two days to relax. At that point, she started having cramps but had no other symptoms. Still, she decided to go get what she wanted thought was a pregnancy test.

“It was in Spanish! It was a one-week pregnancy test. So I did it and I couldn’t look at it. Theo said, ‘What’s it supposed to say?’ I said, ‘Well, is there 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 when I hiked that mountain, I was seven weeks pregnant.

“Not even to give myself a boost, I’m just speaking for all women: we’re tough. Because that was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I did it during my pregnancy. And giving birth? It’s no joke. I’ve never felt pain like that.”

Kaiser, who has competed on four seasons of “The Challenge,” is now taking a “break” from the game to spend time with her son, but hopes to return in the future. “I am a person who is driven by a purpose. I have the biggest purpose now and I want to fight for it,” she said. “I want to see where that takes me.”

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