On the season finale of of Fox‘s “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” just three of the celebrity recruits made it to the end of the line: Collin Gosselin, Alexia Umansky and Candace Cameron Bure.
When the dust settled, the “Full House” alum made an honest admission about winning the gruelling reality TV competition this season.
‘I Was Honestly Shocked’
“I was honestly shocked when I passed,” Candace told Us Weekly. “I remember when I was standing there and I was looking around and saw that it was Alexia and Collin and me. I couldn’t believe that the other people weren’t there. So I was trying to process that while they were talking, and I almost thought that they were separated from me.”
As she recalled, by the end she was so exhausted that the revelation she’d actually won didn’t hit her immediately. “That whole night — it was a 24-hour day, so you are so sleep deprived and you don’t know what’s going on,” she recalled. “I genuinely thought the other people were separated and it was still a part of the day. I didn’t know we were at the final selection. … When we were all declared winners, I was so happy, but I was so confused. Because I was like, ‘What’s going on?’ Once the reality hit, it was just a big sigh of relief and like, ‘Wow, it’s over. We did it. This is incredible.’ And it was just fun to share it with the others too.”
She Leaned On Her Faith
Speaking with Us Weekly, the Great American Family star explained that she dug deep into her faith to help get her through.
“I memorized a lot of scripture before I left,” she said. “Just memorizing scripture about fear and perseverance and endurance. There was a constant reel in my mind that I was just citing scripture, just giving myself the encouragement to walk through it.”
Recalling the “really great conversations” that she and her fellow competitors had during their evenings together, she added, “We were saying prayers at night. There were other Christian believers in the room, so it was a source of comfort for me, but I think for a lot of us in the room. It had a huge impact on me, to keep me going.”
If there was one moment when she thought she wasn’t going make it, she singled out the chemical warfare challenge when the celebrities were forced to endure tear gas.
“I thought I was going to die. I was ready to leave the show at that point,” she confessed, admitting she felt as if she was “genuinely gonna quit.”
In fact, she revealed that she was about to throw in the towel, and had ripped off her armband during that challenge to signal she was voluntarily withdrawing — although that particular moment did not air on television.
“What you didn’t see is that I actually did rip up my, like, rip off my armband because I thought I was trapped in the tear gas,” she explained. “I didn’t know that there was an exit and I thought I was about to die because it swells your neck, you’re burning, you’re itching, and I just wanted to get out. I ripped it out, like, ‘I need to get out. I need to get out.’”
Recalling that she “wasn’t rationally thinking” at that moment, she didn’t realize that she “didn’t have to withdraw” in order to exit the challenge.
“Once I got out, I thought that was it for me,” she said. “And one of the DS, [Jason “Foxy” Fox], he actually picked up my armband and goes, ‘I think you dropped this, didn’t you?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, yes, sir, yes, staff.’ And I put it back on, and I was actually relieved because I’m like, I didn’t want to leave the show. I was just so panicked and didn’t know how to get out.”
While she may have been surprised to have made it to the finish line, her husband — former NHL star Valeri Bure — was not.
“She’s a tough little cookie and I was not surprised when I didn’t receive the call on the first day, or second day and the third day,” he to.d Us Weekly. “[We] don’t have a side bet, but we kind of [were] like, ‘Well, what do you think?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, your mom is gonna go all the way.’ I think everybody that knows Candace closely bet on her to go all the way. So that was super exciting.”
Candace Cameron Bure Credits Her Faith for ‘Special Forces’ Win: ‘A Huge Impact’