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Johnny "Bananas" Devenanzio faced backlash after a February 4, 2025, tweet from his account was accused of racism. The tweet, featuring banana and gorilla emojis in response to Big Brother winner Taylor Hale, was deleted after criticism. Devenanzio claimed a marketing agency managed his account and he was unaware of the post.
Hale, who addressed the situation with Variety on February 10, said,
"I do not hold Johnny responsible for the insensitive tweet, but I do hold him responsible for the response. Public disrespect should be met with the most immediate public apology through the same medium."
She had previously assured Devenanzio in private that she did not view the intent of the tweet as "racist" but urged him to publicly clarify the situation. The marketing agency, Step Up Social, released a statement on February 7, apologizing for the unauthorized post and explaining that the gorilla emoji is commonly used in cryptocurrency discussions.
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Twitter post timeline and The Challenge alum Johnny’s response
The controversy started on February 4, when Devenanzio’s account posted six banana emojis followed by a gorilla emoji in response to Hale’s post about The Challenge. The post was deleted after receiving backlash.
On February 5, Hale tweeted about Devenanzio, referring to him as “that yellow fruit man” and highlighting the engagement his pinned tweet received. Later that day, Devenanzio contacted Hale privately to explain that a marketing agency had posted the tweet without his knowledge.
On February 7, Step Up Social issued a statement apologizing for the tweet, explaining that the gorilla emoji is often used in cryptocurrency discussions and was meant to promote the $BANANAS coin. The statement read,
“Given the nature of the reply, it is clear that the content was inappropriate and does not reflect the values of our agency or our client.”
Devenanzio later made a public statement, saying,
“I regret any offense that it’s caused, and I really do appreciate those who have taken time to wait until I made my statement, to seek the truth before rushing to judgment and character assassination.”
Taylor Hale response to the controversy
On February 10, Hale spoke to Variety about the situation. While she stated that she did not believe the tweet was intentionally "racist", she stated that The Challenge veteran Devenanzio’s response should have been quicker.
"I believe Johnny and I can agree we’d like the narrative of racism to be put to rest, and for the temperature to be brought down on all sides,” she added.
She explained that after the tweet went viral, she received messages from individuals claiming to be Devenanzio’s fans. She stated that she holds him "responsible" for the delay in addressing the issue.
Hale said she spoke privately with Devenanzio, who assured her he wasn’t behind the tweet. She suggested he make a public statement to clear things up. Both want to move on from the issue.
Devenanzio started reality TV in 2006 with The Real World, won The Challenge seven times, and recently appeared on The Traitors season 2.
New episodes of The Challenge All Stars: Rivals airs every Wednesday at 8 pm ET on MTV.
