When it came down to it, Hannah Brown and Carli Lloyd proved they have what it takes to pass the tough Special Forces selection process. The fierce female contestants tackled the brutal interrogation process and outlasted Danny Amendola and Dwight Howard. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test winners Hannah and Carli about their reactions to making it through the end.
“It was such a taxing last day of all the interrogation and torture,” Hannah said. “I’m saying torture, but it really kind of felt like that. I was just really shocked that it was actually over and that we had passed. I was also just really proud. This was something that was so out of my element, and I just went for it and tried my absolute best. To be able to accomplish that was something that kind of surprised me. I was really just honored to be also standing there with Carli.”
Carli added, “The last 24 hours were absolute torture. I don’t even know the place that I went to, but I went to a deep dark place and just tried to think of happy thoughts knowing that I was almost at the finish line. But I just kept telling myself I just didn’t want to quit. That was my main goal. I couldn’t bring myself to quit. Whatever I had to do to get through it, I was going to do so. It was extremely rewarding, and I felt incredibly proud and just pushed my limits to a mental capacity that I really didn’t know I had in me. I think it was pretty badass that Hannah and I were the two that are victorious and made it through.”
The Bachelorette alum and the Olympic soccer star endured military-grade interrogation. They had to face interrogation specialists screaming at them, while also being subjected to dreadful sounds and put into stressed positions with no sleep.
“The interrogation was obviously super unpleasant. It’s never fun to have people yelling in your face and trying to get in your head,” Hannah admitted. “I’m interested to see what Carli says, but for me, it was really the having to endure listening to really horrible sounds and being in stressed positions, and not getting any sleep. That was really really hard for me. That was probably the only time that I was like, okay, I don’t know how much longer I can do this. But just like Carly said, I couldn’t quit. I couldn’t bring myself to be the one to tap out. That was kind of my mindset the whole time. They’re going to have to kick me out. I’m going to keep going. But those 9, 10, I don’t know how many hours of just being so uncomfortable and just hearing these horrible sounds was really, really difficult for me to keep going.”
For Carli, the stressful positions were “really tough” for her following her knee injury. “I didn’t really have good flexibility, and my knee was still pretty swollen. That was challenging. You don’t know how you’re going to react in those situations,” she noted.
Hannah, Carli, Danny, and Dwight had to memorize a cover story beforehand and try to not blow their cover with the interrogation specialists, who tried everything they could to break the recruits. “It was definitely a small deep dive into a real-life interrogation situation,” Carli pointed out. “I would say I would never probably ever want to go through that. That was probably my least favorite thing.”
Throughout the entire Special Forces journey, the recruits were incredibly supportive of each other. They encouraged each other and helped out when they could. While Hannah and Carli emerged victorious, their fellow final recruits did not. Danny tapped out during interrogation, and Dwight was removed.
“I was shocked. I really was shocked,” Hannah said about Danny and Dwight not being there at the end. “I genuinely wanted us all to be there at the end and really believed that we all could. But I also was equally as happy to see that it was me and Carli that did make it to the end. I think it’s really cool for other young women to see two strong women being the last to kind of survive this crazy experience. We all became really close and encouraged each other along the way because we’re all going through these really difficult moments and you really bond, so I was shocked. We also don’t know what made them tap out. We’re still kind of in the dark as to exactly what happened. But as I said, I was super honored that it was me and Carli at the end.”
Carli told HollywoodLife that the final 4 recruits all “had the intention of, alright, we’re going to do this. We’re going to come out across that finish line and complete this. I don’t even know what happened with Danny and Dwight. Danny passed every test. He was an absolute beast and such a great leader, such a great person. I was pretty bummed for him in the end, and I think with Dwight as well. I think Dwight turned a corner, and the DS kind of gave it to him a little bit in a tough love type of way to really get him to change his attitude a little bit and he bought in. I was kind of disappointed that he didn’t make it through either.”
In the end, the Olympian is “just super proud and it just shows the world how powerful women can be. I think Hannah and I both leaned on one another to get through I, which was special.”
During their 10 days competing on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, Hannah and Carli certainly didn’t live a life of luxury. Once they had completed the final task and left base camp, they both had one thing in mind: a hot shower.
“The first thing I did when I was done was take a shower. I was so ready to shower and shave my legs,” Hannah told HollywoodLife. Carli added, “I went to a hotel in the city. My flight was out the next morning, so when I got to the hotel, the first thing I couldn’t wait to do was get in the shower. I didn’t have a brush. We all didn’t have brushes. The amount of sand that was caked in my hair was like nothing I’d ever seen before. The shower floor was absolutely covered in it. I had to go through it probably 5 times. I think for the next week I was still kind of finding little gritty sand that was in my hair.”
Neither Hannah nor Carli went straight home after completing Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test. Hannah went on a European vacation. “I guess that also helped me stay the full 10 days because that was coming,” Hannah revealed. “It was nice because I was able to just relax. I think it’s really hard when you have these really amazing feelings of victory, and then that come down I think is really difficult. So this gave me something to look forward to and a new adventure.”
Carli went straight from Jordan to London to play in a charity soccer game. “My husband sent me there,” she said. “I got to see him and spent about 4 or 5 days in London, and I actually was playing soccer for the next 5 days.”
She continued, “It was an interesting 24 hours of leaving the whole atmosphere and environment and kind of processing at all. I did find myself on the way to London just kind of tearing up a little bit and getting emotional because I feel like I didn’t really get emotional on the show. But I just couldn’t believe the experience that I had and went through and was able to make it to the end. That was always my goal. But you never know when you’re going to get there. It was quite an experience.”