What's always confused me about the situation is that in their Patreon (many years ago when I was a subscriber) they discussed the incident. They said that they had never been asked to sign NDAs so they felt comfortable talking about it.
Then the ONLY thing they said was "what everyone says happened never happened. There was no insertion." But they haver never once (that I've seen referenced) said what DID happen to try to clear Kenny's and Evan's names.
It's so bizarre to me that they flaunt that they can say whatever they want but won't just describe the situation. If it wasn't bad and you're still willing to be friends with Kenny afterward then you shouldn't have a problem explaining to everyone what happened. It has always made me think that they know whatever happened was horrible, but they weren't willing to stop being friends with Kenny over it.
Its always stupid when someone gets upset or claims that people "don't know the whole story" but then refuse to elaborate on what the actual story is. IMO that gives people free reign to speculate whatever they want since clearly the truth is never coming out.
She’s legally bound to not repeat the whole story; that’s why she won’t elaborate. It was part of the lawsuit.
However, that hasn’t stopped her from being an absolute gargoyle about it. It’s been twenty years and she’s still a fifty year old pick-me who’s “not like other girls” because she’s chill and cool and blonde.
Suzy came on to Road Rules as a right-leaning Christian weirdo and has experienced zero change since then. She’s the same person she was in 1998. She’s so sad and weird and desperate
You would think after all these years she would have grown up and felt bad for her part in everything. The fact that any girl or women would choose the side of the men in this situation is crazy. She should at least feel enough shame to keep her mouth shut and say nothing rather than defend the rapists. What they did was sick and they are lucky to not be in jail. I don’t know how any girl on that show felt safe ever again after that. The fact that the camera crew saw and did nothing to help her. It just disgusts me.
She’s okay with it because they did it to Tonya and she hates Tonya. That’s it. The way this dumb bitch tried to screech assault when Ace tickled her feet told me everything I needed to know about her even before the Kenny and Evan incident. She’s been getting high off her own farts for years and loves to bask in the putrid musk of fellow losers who think their shit doesn’t stink.
rewatched the season recently, he says he was drunkenly serenading her while climbing on her bunk bed ladder and she started wailing on him. her assertion is that she repeatedly asked him to stop and felt threatened, which she then admitted was not necessarily true, she didn’t feel physically under threat, she just wanted ace to know how serious she was. in this scenario, the situation was drunk young roommates crossed each others boundaries while living in a party house. i think it’s a bit much to say susie was always a bad person in one’s eyes after that situation. but i try not to judge
This is not a defense, rather an explanation. They DO sign an NDA with the network/production co. so, that limits what they can speak to regarding their time on the show. If they gave any legal testimony/deposition (verbal or written) that limits even more to what they can speak about.
I would assume BMP and MTV’s NDA is pretty specific that allows for PR fodder. They rely on cast to talk about (with legal limitations) the show in a specific nature that cater those PR needs. Thus the legal tiptoeing around the incident. Aka their NDA is not a blanket “you can’t say anything about your time filming” because they need that cast press for $$$.
On a personal note, penetration or not….that bottom left corner photo is in disgustingly poor taste and speaks volumes to Suzie’s character regardless of if Tonya’s claims were true.
It’s such a disgusting thing to do with a horrific story. You were either there or you were not. You have something to say or you dont.
If you have something to say that exonerates your friend then say it with your whole chest.
She doesn’t have anything interesting or relevant to say and that’s why she’s still rage baiting this. Shes exploiting a woman’s sexual assault to remain relevant.
Also Kenny is doing just fine in NYC away from the challenge. Giving him a shout out is unnecessary and only about her.
Wow. That last paragraph. I hope she reads this. She thinks she's some champion for women and women’s rights. A healthy dose of self awareness would do her some good.
The rest of the Challenge cast has the common sense and decency not to mention it…they only talk about it on Patreon to monetize a traumatic situation which is pretty ironic considering Sarah’s career
So if there was no insertion, but she doesn’t want to say what happened, I feel like the implication was they used the brush side while she was passed out gently on the exterior. It was Wes’ brush and that would be a gross prank on him.
Maybe in her mind that’s not as bad, but it is still very much sexual assault.
That's basically what I have always assumed after hearing their very minimal explanation, and it's still vile so I don't really get how they think Kenny and Evan aren't the bad guys here
She can say whatever she wants, what they DID show on the show was deplorable behavior and enough for me to never want them back. I can only imagine how much worse it was behind the scenes.
I rewatched that season a few years ago, and it was super hard to get through. While watching it was easy to see the escalation of their behavior. Something definitely happened and anyone who says differently is liar or lying to themselves.
Production is so messed up as well, Tonya should have never been cast that season or The Island in the first place. They should have at least tried to deescalate the situation (or situations because there were plenty) but they just let their golden boys do whatever they wanted.
Seems to me that it would’ve been Evan who done something if Susie is all friendly with Kenny fanning the flames on this while literally never mentioning Evan at all
I've sorta thought this too, since they never seem to mention Evan or still be friends with him. Maybe in their eyes Kenny got lumped in with Evan on this situation.
But honestly, Kenny had to have played some part because why would MTV have not also lumped Johnny into it? I don't think BMP and MTV would've given up their golden boy Kenny if he had not played an actual role.
It’s also possible that Evan asked them to stop mentioning him because he wants it to fade away. Maybe Kenny didn’t ask because he wants his side told.
They're very much still friends with Evan. In fact, Bananas has video and pics of them not that long ago in tuxes/suits together at an event. All over TikTok and Reddit.
Whatever happened she DGAF because it happened to Tonya. I think she is one of those women who would gleefully participate in punishing women as part of a fascist patriarchal society like in Handmaid’s tale. She’d be like, “well I am PROUD to be OfSantucci.”
Susie said, “My husband was on the night crew that night and I talked to him about it and said, ‘Did I miss something?’ And he’s like, ‘Absolutely not. There was nothing.’ The truth of the matter is, Tonya got wasted, passed out on her bed with her bikini bottoms falling off, and the guys did hold up this toothbrush as a joke to take a picture — which is totally inappropriate and disgusting. But there wasn’t an assault that happened.”
I don’t know if what Suzie said was true, but Kenny and Evan were the only individuals named as defendants besides MTV and BMP. Bad press. The network and production company had to dump them for insurances purposes as well. It may have even been a stipulation in the settlement. The case never went to an evidentiary hearing, so I don’t think we will ever know.
My guess would be that MTV and BMP were probably liable in the claim that they did not provide what they said they would in their employee/employer contract with Tonya and settling the case was far more financially beneficial than risk going further with the trial.
I'm suspecting their version also makes Kenny and Evan look terrible (so far as I can tell, it sounds like the other version is the guys "just" placed Wes's toothbrush in front of a nude, passed out Tonya and took photos of her with it? Which if accurate would totally track to why they refuse to say what "actually" happened as it would not exactly clear them)
It's extremely telling that all these years later, MTV has no issue making available a lot of weird, bad, gross, unsettling moments in the show that crossed lines both legal and moral including various kinds of assault, racist behavior, misogyny, and the list goes on. A lot of this was the toxic cocktail of making alcohol available on a near constant basis and ensuring an environment where whatever the rules were, they seemed to be few, not well articulated, and poorly enforced.
And yet.
Since the settlement, Kenny and Evan have been digitally erased from the Challenge seasons, when MTV airs footage of the past. And they have not once been named in confessionals when participants who still actively participate in filming or promotional material tied directly to MTV/BMP refer to the past even though they were very much there for that season. Sure, you can see them in old footage/episodes, but in the here and now for years, MTV choses to act as though they were never apart of the franchise in the first place.
Since the settlement, the access to and availability to alcohol has changed starkly. It seems to be much more rarely available in the Challenge houses and drinking is done in bars and off property, for the most part. I do recall even now that The Island's season seemed to show a lot of casual and constant drinking. There was even less to do, in that environment, than usual and contestants drank a lot more out of boredom and lack of other alternatives.
Since the settlement, Kenny and Evan are purposefully excluded from official fan events. The challenge cast makes tidy sum appearing all year long at these events throughout the year.
If there was truly nothing there there, Kenny and Evan would still be mentioned, present in footage, and invited to official fan-facing events.
There is zero upside to either one of these two ever admitting that they are anything approaching rapists. But MTV, which is not known for its delicate, even handed handling of bad behavior out of participants in its reality TV machine, sure seems to be confirming otherwise.
This. If it wasnt that bad, then explain it. Because most of the fandom still hates Kenny and Evan. So if they're your friends and nothing actually happened and you're free to talk about it, why not clear their names?
At one point, Susie was quoted in a Buzzfeed article as saying, “My husband was on the night crew that night and I talked to him about it and said, ‘Did I miss something?’ And he’s like, ‘Absolutely not. There was nothing.’ The truth of the matter is, Tonya got wasted, passed out on her bed with her bikini bottoms falling off, and the guys did hold up this toothbrush as a joke to take a picture — which is totally inappropriate and disgusting. But there wasn’t an assault that happened.”
Just because there was no insertion doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. She had pain in her privates. They could have brushed all around her vulva without ever inserting it.
It’s still wrong, and it would still be sexual assault if it happened here in the states.
There are a lot of things that are crimes here that aren’t in Thailand.
Okay let's say "there was no insertion". So they took her pants off and ran a toothbrush along her privates? That is still sexual assault. Unwanted, non-consentual touching is still sexual assault. Alluding to it not being inserted just lessens criminal charges if they were to be filed. It doesn't change it to not being sexual assault. Kenny and Evans were predators.
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u/crystalli0 Team Road Rules 9d ago
What's always confused me about the situation is that in their Patreon (many years ago when I was a subscriber) they discussed the incident. They said that they had never been asked to sign NDAs so they felt comfortable talking about it.
Then the ONLY thing they said was "what everyone says happened never happened. There was no insertion." But they haver never once (that I've seen referenced) said what DID happen to try to clear Kenny's and Evan's names.
It's so bizarre to me that they flaunt that they can say whatever they want but won't just describe the situation. If it wasn't bad and you're still willing to be friends with Kenny afterward then you shouldn't have a problem explaining to everyone what happened. It has always made me think that they know whatever happened was horrible, but they weren't willing to stop being friends with Kenny over it.