The Amazing Race's Jonathan Addresses His Behavior, Calls His Treatment of Wife Ana 'Inexcusable'
Jonathan Towns is addressing his controversial behavior on the current season of The Amazing Race.
The contestant has received backlash for the way he treated his wife, Ana Rivera Towns, throughout the 37th season of the CBS season.
In a new video posted to their YouTube channel, Jonathan responded to the backlash he received for calling Ana a “terrible partner” during the May 7 episode.
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“I called you a terrible partner, which is inexcusable and awful,” Jonathan said in a new video. “In actuality, you were a great partner.”
Jonathan continued, “I wanna say that out of everybody in this race, nobody came further outside their comfort zone than my wife. She comes from nothing, essentially. She has not been exposed to any of this stuff. And she has never been placed in a competitive environment.”
“And here we are on the Amazing Race, a hyper-competitive environment full of a lot of impressive people, and she’s keeping up with them, and not only that, she has to deal with this. She has to deal with my unpredictability and my anger and all those things, and she is just taking it all in stride, so shout out to the MVP of Team Fast and Furious, Anna Towns,” he added.
Jonathan said there’s no excuse for his behavior.
“I mean, we could talk about generational trauma, we could talk about childhood programming and in your upbringing, we could talk about autism, but ultimately, none of that stuff matters, OK?” he said. “I am, at the end of the day, 100 percent responsible for how I direct my anger and who I direct it on, and in this case, I directed that anger onto my wife, which should never, ever happen. That’s on me.”
In a previous YouTube video, Jonathan said that he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) following the race.
“Looking back at what I was seeing, and knowing what I know about myself now, it’s so hard for me to be supportive and helpful to somebody when my brain is in this overheated state,” he said. “When I’m on The Race, unlike when I’m at home, I cannot control the external factors. I have no control – my routines are completely non-existent. And we rely on – people like me rely on routines in order to help us regulate our emotions and to control the amount of stimulus that we can get at any given time.”