‘The Amazing Race' 37's Jonathan Admits He ‘Treated Ana Very Poorly,' But They've ‘Come a Long Way'
The Amazing Race season 37 star Jonathan Towns is owning up to his controversial behavior and making changes.
The California native, 42, responded to a fan who apologized for previously leaving a negative comment on Jonathan and wife Ana Towns' YouTube page on Thursday, May 8.
'Jonathan. For my part, I sincerely apologize to you and Ana, especially to you. I stumbled upon your YouTube channel first time yesterday. I had been watching Amazing Race and you are one of my favorite couples for so many reasons. I didn't like the behavior from you towards Ana on several occasions,' the fan's comment read. 'But, I did not know that much had transpired after the show, until I read your comment and another comment today. I was not aware of the diagnosis. At any rate, sincere apologies to you. I have deleted my comment from yesterday.'
Jonathan responded, 'No apology needed. I treated Ana very poorly while we were on the show and I understand how that can trigger a lot of strong emotions in people, but yes, we have come a long way since then. Thank you for your support.'
The software developer has come under fire from fans since season 37's premiere on March 5 due to the way he has spoken to Ana, 35. Some of his most controversial moments have included telling his wife to 'stop whining' after they lost their lead, shutting down her attempts to offer him support and calling her a 'terrible partner' after she told him he was being mean to her.
'Not Jonathan blaming his wife again,' one fan wrote on X in response to Jonathan saying Ana mislabeled cheeses during the Wednesday, May 7, episode. 'The amount of times he has messed up a challenge and she's never blamed him!'
'Jonathan is such an ass and his negativity it not entertaining at all ... I really like Ana ... I don't know how she deal with him ... if anyone can get eliminated, i hope it's them ... Only because of Jonathan,' another user added.
Amid the backlash, Jonathan said in an April 8 YouTube video that he watched his behavior unfold on the show alongside viewers and realized that he needed to seek help. He was then diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
'Looking back at what I was seeing, and knowing what I know about myself now, it's so hard for me to be supportive and helpful to somebody when my brain is in this overheated state,' he said, explaining that he had a 'hyperactive brain' that was triggered on the show.
Jonathan continued, 'When I'm on The Race, unlike when I'm at home, I cannot control the external factors. I have no control – my routines are completely non-existent. And we rely on – people like me rely on routines in order to help us regulate our emotions and to control the amount of stimulus that we can get at any given time.'
Jonathan referenced the moment where he told Ana to 'stop whining' and admitted that he reacted to his wife with a 'harsh tone.' However, he explained what he was feeling at the time.
'So, at this point, I described how, you know, there was this perfect storm of factors which contributed to this sort of spiraling and inside my head, it felt like there was a nuclear reactor that was melting down,' Jonathan said. 'That's how high my stress level was at this time, because I had all these thoughts going in my head. I'm on the way to these detours, fighting for my life on the Amazing Race, and yeah, so, I was already spiraling at that time.'
He continued, 'Even though I know now she's going to express her frustration in her way, and I need to respect that, at that time, I was just overwhelmed with everything that was happening at that time that I felt like I didn't have time to deal with the crying.'
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