Amazing Race's Rob and Kelley: We Would've Given the Money Back
Rob and Kelley got the boot on Sunday's Amazing Race, but the post-show hubbub isn't about their exit, but rather Natalie and Nadiya keeping James and Abba's money after finding it in a travel agency. "We couldn't believe that. We were shocked watching it," Kelley tells TVGuide.com. "We had no idea that happened. That was crazy." The monster truckers say they would've returned the money and — unlike the show — penalized not only the twins, but Trey and Lexi, with whom the girls split the money. How would they have punished them? Plus: Find out what you didn't see in Sunday's episode.
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What's your take on the money issue?
Kelley: It was crazy! [Laughs]
Rob: My take is this: If they didn't know whose money it was, I wouldn't have any issue with them taking it. But they plainly stated whose money it was and they said they wished that it was one of the other team's money. Blatantly in the rules it says that you cannot take anybody else's stuff. Period. They absolutely knew whose money it was and the guys were in the same room with them. I feel like it was wrong of CBS not to penalize them.
It seems like the show doesn't consider that stealing because the rockers lost it.
Rob: Which I don't agree with. Both teams should've been disqualified for theft. That's the way that I feel. I wouldn't want my children to learn from that situation. ... All the fan comments I've seen online and on Facebook feel the same way. They feel like there's a rule because there's supposed to be a rule. With production saying, "Oh, they didn't know whose money it was" — that's a lie. They said it right on camera that it was the rockers' money. They knew and the right thing to do is to return it to the people it belongs to.
So obviously you would've given it back.
Rob: Yes. We had two situations on the Race where we had other people's things and we made sure the teams got their stuff.
Kelley: At the beginning of the Race, we were the last ones to get our bags. As it turned out, we also had another team's [fanny pack]. We realized it when we got to the airport and we brought it to production.
Rob: And the other incident was we saw a taxi leaving with all the Chippendales' [Jaymes and James] stuff, and Kelley jumped out of our taxi and told the driver, "You can't leave until they get back."
Kelley: He was following our taxi and we said, "You cannot go. They'll never find you. You have to stay here until they come back because you have all their stuff." We could've let him follow us and they would've been running through the marketplace looking for their stuff.
This whole thing is overshadowing your elimination.
Kelley: We just got pushed right by! [Laughs] That's OK!
Rob: It's all right. I feel like everything we did on the Race was very ethical and very much part of who we are. I felt very strong about our last comments on the mat and me being able to share with the world how much I love my wife and how much we're in love. We never fell to the level of some of the other teams. We were always supportive of each other, we played fair, we played the game on our playing field. We didn't follow the other teams. We didn't do what they were doing; we did what we were doing. That's the way we felt the way the game was supposed to be played. I didn't think it should be a team effort; I thought it was individuals working to win. We're very proud of what we did. If we were invited to go back, we'd definitely go back, but we'd still play our game.
Did you know you were last when you were the only ones left at the Roadblock?
Kelley: Yeah, but they could've gotten lost on the way or got stuck in traffic or there could've been some kind of incident. We had different incidents happen with taxis, so anything could've happened. But we knew in our hearts that we were last.
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How far behind were you?
Rob: We were close because [Josh and Brent] were still on the mat talking to Phil when we arrived.
Kelley: They had to step off the mat when we came, so it was minutes.
Rob: When you watch the show, there are a lot of things that happen that [aren't] included in the show. [Viewers] didn't see that we got detained by the police.
How did that happen?
Rob: We were running down the street and they didn't know if we had robbed something or what we had done. Then our camera guy told them, "No, they're not with me" because he didn't know what to say. [Laughs] The police didn't speak English and they wanted to check our paperwork, so they had to find somebody who spoke English to be able to translate back to them so they wouldn't take us to jail. That took about 45 minutes to an hour.
Kelley: We actually had to take two metros. After the first one, you had to get off, run a city block and cross two streets to get to the second metro. We were running from one to the other, so that's when we got stopped.
You were adamant about staying on the metro even though taking a taxi was faster.
Kelley: The people on there insisted that that was the best way and the traffic was too heavy. But as we saw on TV, they were definitely wrong! The traffic was not heavy at all. It was heavy later in the day, but in the morning, the correct move was to take a taxi.
How long did the train take?
Kelley: The first one wasn't very long, but the second one was inner city, so it kept stopping every block. The first one didn't have a lot of stops. We should've never gotten on the second one. And we probably wouldn't have gotten stopped by the police either because we would've gotten a taxi right away!
And you never thought about getting off the train with the Chippendales?
Rob: We don't follow.
Kelley: We just trusted the fellow who helped us get on the train and get the coins and everything. We asked him if he thought they were making the right move or if they were screwing up and he said, "Definitely stay on the metro. The traffic's too heavy." We just went with the local's advice.
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You guys took your own flight a few weeks ago and it arrived four hours later. Did you not do any research for better flights?
Rob: We didn't do research. We had no idea the other teams were on a better flight. I guess our biggest problem was we didn't know enough about all the different aspects of the Race and we weren't looking for anything. So after we got our tickets, we went up to the stands and sat down. We were going to sleep.
Kelley: But there was a task layover and we started with everyone else in the morning, so the flight didn't hurt us. We had a relaxing day. We didn't have to deal with anyone else!
In hindsight, was running your own race a good idea? You got lucky with the flight and bunching, but the metro didn't work out.
Kelley: It's probably not the right way to run completely on your own. In hindsight, when it came to the competitions and tasks, we were very good at all those things if we read the clue correctly! [Laughs] So I guess if we had stayed in a group with other teams, it would've worked out to our advantage as we got to each task and we could see where we were. But hindsight's 20/20.
What are you up to now?
Kelley: We just got back from the rodeo finals and we're getting ready to head to Texas for another rodeo. Rob just got back from Guatemala and Nicaragua with the monster trucks.
Rob: I'm going to Argentina in December.
So you're still globe-trotting.
Rob: Pretty much! We told them in our interviews that we already live The Amazing Race. It's Amazing Race with money and a credit card in your pocket and a phone and GPS. And hopefully nobody steals them!
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