Despite the immense physicality of the show’s challenges, which include being submerged underwater, rappelling from flying helicopters, running uphill with sandbags and even brutally boxing against other cast members, Gia says the psychological element is the most difficult aspect of the series. Special forces. “I would say the course is 90% mental and 10% physical,” she tells M&F. “Because you have to be mentally strong to get through every day.”
Gia Giudice gave her all to the ‘Special Forces’ selection process
Viewers of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test watch each challenge and wonder if they could succeed in the same situation, but they often fail to take into account the circumstances each participant finds themselves in: with only basic food and little to no sleep, each obstacle becomes all the more daunting. “You’re almost warped in time,” Giudice explains. “You really feel like you’re about to get into a fight because we don’t have our phones, we’re disconnected from the real world and we’re there with each other and the DS (the directing staff that assigns the tasks).”
Unlike most reality-based television shows, the cameras here are usually hidden or stationed remotely. “We never see production,” Giudice explains. “They’re not even allowed to talk to us. We know we’re being filmed, but it wasn’t like we felt like we were being filmed, very different from filming a reality TV show like Next generation or Real Housewives.”
Giudice had initially entered season 4 of the series Special Forces: The World’s Toughest Test with her mother Teresa, who opened up on the show about a difficult time in 2014 when both of her parents were received prison sentences for fraud and failure to file taxes. While her parents spent their time apart, the whole ordeal forced her to grow up quickly to help care for three younger sisters while still only a teenager herself. So when she competed in the “World’s Toughest Test” at age 24, the tough challenge gave Giudice the chance to finally spread her wings and put herself first, especially when her mother pulled out of the show in episode two, unable to watch her daughter box a fellow contestant in the challenge known as “milling.”
With Mom gone, many observers thought Giudice would follow suit, but they underestimated her tenacity. “At that moment I thought, ‘Am I going to leave and not put everything into this course?’” she says. “Because I knew I had more in me.” Behind the scenes, Teresa Giudice also had complete confidence. “When she tapped out, she told the Fox producers, my daughter is going to win,” Giudice reveals.
Gia Giudice went from a shaky start to an unwavering character
The shaky start for Gia Giudice had already begun in week one, when she became entangled while trying to descend from a moving helicopter. Fortunately, heights are not one of her biggest fears. “I was clearly stuck,” she recalls. “I’ve done skydiving before, so heights don’t really scare me. Strangely enough, I get a kick out of it,” says the brave girl. And as the weeks passed, Giudice became noticeably stronger and her game face became more focused, even during those terrible challenges that brought out her greatest fears.
“I would say the tunnels were very tough for me,” she recalls of an infiltration mission in which recruits navigated through dark, narrow, muddy underground tunnels to reach an objective. “I already had a panic attack before I entered the tunnel. I didn’t think I could do it, then the DS pushed me and they said: ‘If you don’t get into the tunnel, I will take your bracelet’. And that was such a fear for me.”
The fear of having her bracelet taken away and facing failure would motivate Giudice to the end, even after the arduous interrogation process where the final participants face tremendous struggle. “We were so mentally exhausted,” she tells M&F. “We had been awake, probably towards the end of the interrogation, for 48 hours, with no sleep, and during the interrogation you can get water, but you don’t get food. So it’s quite brutal, and I think it was the mentality of ‘just get through this.'”
Enduring NBA and NFL alumni who created the ‘Special Forces’ design
By the time Gia Giudice completed her interrogation in the final episode, she had outlived former NBA player Nick Young and former NFL players Andrew East, Randall Cobb, Eric Decker and Johnny Manziel. The only two remaining challengers were Giudice and Olympic gold medal gymnast Shawn East. In those final moments, while held captive underground, Giudice had to find a way to cling to both her place and her sanity. “We had no idea of time, but at that moment I thought, ‘I made it through the interrogation, I’m in this moment, just let me get through it,’ how much worse can it really get?” explains Giudice about her unbreakable spirit. “And that was kind of my mindset throughout the whole thing.”
Thanks to her willingness to throw her body into anything physical, and a mentality that made the youngest challenger one of the most formidable, the Executive Staff selected only Giudice and Shawn West as potential Special Forces operatives, making them joint winners. “Everyone was pretty much covered in mud,” Giudice recalls of her desire to return to the well-deserved comfort of a hotel. “There was mud in our hair. I like to be very clean, so the first thing I had to do was get in the shower. I showered for two hours! I couldn’t get out of the shower, the amount of dirt coming off my body, it was so crazy.”
While Giudice may have washed away the mud, the extreme process of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test will stay with her forever. Now that she has finally spread her wings in the boldest way possible, she feels ready to live life to the fullest. “It’s been such a highlight since Special Forces, and it was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life,” she reveals. However, Giudice is far from rested and is busier than ever with series two of her Next Gen NYC reality show returning to Bravo, as well as hosting her podcast ‘Casual Chaos’. Giudice also has her sights set on another reality show that would seriously test her skills.
“Dancing with the stars is my next dream,” she tells M&F. “Because we move on Dancing with the stars, You train 10 hour days, dance every day and you also get into crazy shape. Alex Earle left with an 8 pack, she looked amazing!
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