Freddy & Kendra: The Amazing Couple

"It was a game. We had to remember we were chosen for our dynamic personalities." So says Freddy Holliday, who, with partner and fiancée Kendra Bentley, recently won the controversial sixth season of Studio 23’s Emmy-winning The Amazing Race.

That season saw the sometimes-sweet, sometimes combative engaged models grab a lot of screen time, despite stiff competition, for the many cringe-worthy things that came out of Kendra’s mouth, which many interpreted as racist comments. A mere month after winning the show’s top prize, Freddy and Kendra are ready to tell their side of the story, and their part on TV’s most remarkable adventure.

"We shot the show in August and September 2004 for about five weeks, with the shoot ending on Sept. 13," says Freddy. And if that sounds like a long time to keep such a big secret, Freddy notes that "We signed a $10-million contract that said we couldn’t tell anyone. You know, with your standard anti-trust clause."

"So we didn’t tell a single soul — not our family, our friends. But we had each other to talk to, and it was fun to see our friends watch each episode and be afraid we were going to lose," adds Kendra. "The time after the race was mostly difficult for Freddy, since he would wake up at three o’clock in the morning and do yard work because his schedule was all off. And six months after the race concluded, I still have nightmares that the race is finished and we didn’t really win."

Racing around the world definitely brought its stresses. "The first few legs were very difficult, because we were just trying to get into a rhythm," Freddy notes. Although it was edited out, his turn on the hay bale roadblock in Sweden was hellish, since it was raining, and he turned over hundreds of hay bales — more than any other non-eliminated team, he claims - to find the clue. And a challenge to speed-eat some spicy soup in Hungary nearly brought him to his knees.

Freddy emphasizes that despite that, the team never lost sight of its goal. "We concentrated on always giving ourselves a chance to win and never to be last, and to make sure we made it to the last round and go full steam ahead," he says. "I was absolutely certain we were going to win from the beginning, and it was all about making sure that we didn’t do anything stupid."

Which brings us to the notorious taxicab ride in Senegal, where Kendra was filmed ranting about the conditions of life in the third-world state, and questioning why people kept "breeding and breeding". "(Those statements) were definitely taken out of context," says Kendra. "Freddy and I were having a conversation about the government in Senegal. It was unfortunate and very sad and depressing to see so many people undergoing poverty at the same time, and seeing them suffer with no opportunities for education or birth control, and no clean water, no septic system. The place was dirty, it smelled, and I said it was unfortunate that they just kept breeding and breeding in that poverty. It’s very hard for me to see uneducated people living and suffering."

She adds, "We don’t feel bad about anything we said, except it all came out different when it came out on TV. You have to remember — the word reality, as it’s used on TV, doesn’t mean what you see is any more real than a soap opera."

Speaking of suffering, Kendra would also like to note that their perceived standoffishness with any of the other teams, outside of the team they were allied with, was also the product of creative editing. "We definitely liked Gus and Hera a lot, they were one of our favorite teams," she says. "Freddy and Gus are both pilots, so they had a lot to talk about. We really loved Adam and Rebecca — it didn’t seem that way on the show, but we loved little Rebecca, she was such a blast. Ma and Pa, MJ and Don, I think they were everyone’s favorite, they were sweet, we had a great time with them."

There were fun times, too. "Corsica was our easiest stop. It was the point when Kendra and I thought the game was getting better for us, and we were getting more confident and strong," says Freddy. "And China was great. We’re so far removed from that part of the world and it was such a unique opportunity for us to be there, to be a part of something with such a unique history. Shanghai remains one of the most visually stimulating environments I’ve ever encountered in general."

Outside of the million dollar pot, which Freddy says they "are going to be very, very boring about, because we’re putting it in stocks and real estate," what the pair relishes most is their renewed closeness, which will be put to the final test when they walk down the aisle within the year. "Our relationship is just stronger than ever," Kendra concludes. "I went into the race thinking our love couldn’t be topped, and to have all these challenges and be able to overcome them while depending only on each other made our relationship and our love a lot stronger."

A new batch of teams has already embarked on the seventh season of The Amazing Race, which is carried live exclusively by Studio 23 every Wednesday at 10 a.m., with a primetime broadcast set for Thursdays at 7:30 p.m.