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Brittany Cartwright Addresses Criticism of Her Early ‘Special Forces’ Exit

Originally posted on TV Insider | Last updated Sep 30, 2025 1:30 PM ET

Brittany Cartwright is proud of her time on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, despite facing online backlash for her self-elimination.

“[The reaction to my early elimination] has been a mixed bag of haters and [then] people saying, ‘You tried and you faced your biggest fear.’ So it’s been a lot of ups and downs,” Cartwright shared in an interview with Us Weekly published on Tuesday, September 30. “But I put myself out there and I left my comfort zone. No matter what, I’m proud of that and of the fact that I faced my biggest fear, which was heights. I did that, so I can still walk away proud.”

She continued, “I’m still disappointed in myself that I left. I did not want to be the first person that left, but I’m also proud of myself for knowing when it was time for me to walk away because it was a lot.”

Cartwright ended her Special Forces journey shortly after it began during the Thursday, September 25, Season 4 premiere. After facing her fears by jumping out of a helicopter and running up a hill with heavy supplies, the Bravo star decided to leave the show after being forced to run back to camp as punishment for her team losing a challenge.

“It was definitely complicated. It was very hard, I am not going to lie. Even when they put the bag on my head on the bus, that was hard. It was something that was scary — even though I knew that we were safe — and it was still just terrifying,” Cartwright said of competing on the Fox reality series. “I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I was shaking like a leaf. It was very hot outside. It was just a different kind of sensation that I didn’t think I was going to have before I got there.”

Pete Dadds/ FOX

Though Cartwright said many people think she “didn’t try very hard” on the show, she insisted that she “really tried” her best. “It was just very, very, very complicated. I wasn’t physically fit at the time and I was going through different things in my life at the time.”

She added, “I had also never been away from my son [Cruz] that long before. There were just a lot of different factors that were playing against me. I was in my own head and I’m so glad I did it. If I would do it over again, I would work out harder and be in a better place in my life. But I don’t take it for granted.”

Cartwright shares her 4-year-old son with her estranged husband, Jax Taylor, whom she split from last year. During the Season 4 premiere, Cartwright revealed that Taylor told her she was “not gonna make it far” on the show.

“Him telling me I wouldn’t go far in this, it definitely put me in a weird mental state that I shouldn’t have even had to experience,” she told the outlet. “That shouldn’t have happened to me. I should not have been texted that I wasn’t gonna make it far. I shouldn’t have had that in the back of my mind. But it did happen to me, and it was something that I had to live with. But either way, I don’t care what he has to say.”

Regardless of her Special Forces performance and Taylor’s comment, Cartwright said that she will continue to “put myself out there and every day in my life.” She added, “I do everything and I am proud of myself for the woman that I am and how strong I am every single day. So no matter what was said to me before, it doesn’t affect me anymore. Because I have grown even more since I filmed Special Forces and I am proud of the mother I am and the person I am. He’s never going to take that away from me.”

Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, Season 4, Thursdays, 9/8c, Fox

This article first appeared on TV Insider and was syndicated with permission.

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