Bachelor vet Trista Sutter almost died on Special Forces: ‘It was really scary’

Trista Sutter shed light on her abrupt exit from Fox’s hit series, Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, in which celebrities take on demanding training led by an elite team of ex-Special Forces operatives. 

The inaugural Bachelorette star, 52, who was the fourth recruit to leave the show’s third season after Stephen Baldwin, Ali Fedotowsky and Denise Richards, revealed that she nearly died from ‘hypothermic shock’ when she ‘got back from the beach on the first day.’

‘My lips were turning blue in the vehicle on the way back. It was bad. I was extremely lethargic,’ she recalled to Us Weekly. ‘It was really scary.’

She continued: ‘I wanted to get to the end. I truly did. I wasn’t one that wanted to just sign up for the show and get the paycheck on the first day, you know what I mean? I wanted to challenge myself as much as I could.’ 

Sutter went on to explain that viewers did not see her experience in the mirror room, where she ‘really’ got to ‘connect on a human level with Billy [Billingham] and Q [Jovon Quarles].’ 

‘I thought that it would be farther along,’ she insisted, before noting that she also got close to soldier, Rudy Reyes, who she first told she thought she was going ‘to faint’ on the beach. 

I said, “I think I’m going to faint.” And he’s like, “Well, what do you want to do?” I said, “I would love to see a medic.” And he is like, “Well, you can’t, if you see a medic then you’re voluntarily withdrawing.” … And he’s like, “I’m sorry, you have to either VW or keep going.” And I’m like, “OK, I’m not ready to go home,”‘ she explained. 

Sutter said she ‘just kept going’ and, ultimately, her tenacity was recognized in the mirror room, where she said she was told they were ‘really proud’ of her.

The mother-of-two also noted that Reyes admitted that he assumed she was ‘going to quit on the beach’ but was ‘so proud’ that she ‘kept going.’

After getting back from the beach, she explained she took a long shower to warm up. 

‘Before we started filming [again] I saw the number 444 and I believe in angel numbers and guardian angels and God and have huge faith and all of that,’ she recalled. ‘I went into it knowing or believing that my guardian angels were kind of watching over me and went to bed. I woke up to the explosions — all of us did — and instantaneously a peace came over me thinking, “You’re good. You’ve gotten a lot out of these two days.” Even though it’s just two days. It was like a lifetime.’ 

Following her brush with death, the staff warned her and the other recruits that things were about to get a lot harder if they remained and progressed in the show. 

‘And it was already really hard!’ she said. ‘The in-betweens — running with the pack, which is a third of my body weight essentially — it was really hard. I’ve never been a runner and those were the hard parts, the tasks I was actually kind of excited about and thought I did really well in them even though I didn’t pass technically.’ 

Despite her short stint on the show, she said she gained her confidence back and learned she ‘can do hard things’ if she put her ‘mind to it.’ 

The inaugural Bachelorette star, 52, who was the fourth recruit to leave the show’s third season after Stephen Baldwin, Ali Fedotowsky and Denise Richards, revealed that she nearly died from ‘hypothermic shock’ when she ‘got back from the beach on the first day’

‘My lips were turning blue in the vehicle on the way back. It was bad. I was extremely lethargic,’ she recalled to Us Weekly. ‘It was really scary’

‘Part of me regrets leaving when I did, now that I see everything that they’ve been through,’ she confessed. ‘But I just keep trying to remind myself how I felt in that moment and that peace that came over me, [how I did] challenge myself with the experience and all the people I met, the camaraderie. I’m trying to be grateful for all that, but it is hard. I would love to wake myself up and be like, “Yeah, whatever. Screw that piece. Keep going!”‘ 

Still, she knows that she was ‘giving a hundred percent’ the whole time, ‘even though’ her ‘hundred percent was not as great as the professional athletes and Carey Hart.’

‘I was trying my best,’ the former reality star declared. ‘And so just knowing that they saw that I was giving a hundred percent meant a lot to me.’

‘I have just so much respect for them and what they have given to our country [and] their countries. Connecting with them was really important to me,’ she added of the DS (Directing Staff). 

Additionally, she told People that a lot was going on behind-the-scenes that viewers didn’t get to see that left her ‘exhausted.’ 

Sutter went on to explain that viewers did not see her experience in the mirror room, where she ‘really’ got to ‘connect on a human level with Billy [Billingham] and Q [Jovon Quarles]’

This included ‘running with a pack that’s a third of’ her weight and ‘trying to run.’ 

‘I’m trying to run. I am not a runner normally. I have asthma. I’m out of shape. And those are not excuses at all. I don’t want that to come across as an excuse. I’m just saying that was really hard for me,’ she told the outlet. 

‘I had angels like Golden Tate, who at one point you could see at the bridge task that he had two backpacks on, one in the front and one in the back,’ she pointed out. ‘Mine was the one in the front. And he was carrying me.’

‘Him and Nathan were holding my hand as we were running to the vehicles from the bridge,’ she stated. ‘Cam came running to get my pack from me after the beach, even though [Directing Staff member] Q was like, “Don’t you help her. Don’t you help her.” And he’s like, “Whatever, I’m going to help her.”’ 

After hitting her ‘breaking point’ and withdrawing, Sutter returned home to her husband, Ryan, who she met on the very first season of the Bachelorette in 2003.