‘The Amazing Race' Season 37 Fans React to Jonathan Calling Ana a ‘Terrible Partner' and More Moments
Jonathan and Ana are married parents of two daughters from Pomona, California. He works as a software developer, while she is a stay-at-home mom.
Since the beginning of season 37, which premiered on March 5, 2025, Jonathan and Ana have had quite a few red flag moments. For example, he criticized her soccer skills when she was struggling with a Roadblock early in the season. Later, he told Ana to 'stop crying' and 'stop whining' when they lost their lead. Jonathan also faced backlash for calling Ana a 'terrible partner' after she said that he was being mean to her.
Fans have shared their thoughts on Jonathan and Ana online throughout the season.
'Jonathan can yell at Ana to stop whining and crying, but Ana can't try to be encouraging and tell him to not give up … the difference between being supportive and not supportive is glaring,' one fan wrote on X on April 2, 2025.
'Me picking up Ana and driving past Jonathan while he's stuck in the ditch if I was in the race,' another user joked on April 16, 2025, using a GIF to reference a moment when Jonathan and Ana's car got stuck in the mud in Italy.
'I am so sick of Jonathan's bulls--t. If something is even slightly Ana's fault he f--king drills into her, but whenever he screws up it's just 'bad race luck' or something similarly stupid. I don't think I've ever wanted a team to lose more than I want them to,' a third person wrote after the May 7, 2025, episode.
Many fans wondered if it was possible for Ana to keep racing while Jonathan gets eliminated from the race.
'Is there anyway for Jonathan to be eliminated but Ana to keep racing without him, he's a POS!' one user wrote, while another person added, 'Jonathan (from amazing race) is someone no one wants to root for and I feel bad for Ana. It irritates me beyond words seeing men treat their women like that.'
The Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan appeared to subtly address Jonathan's comments toward Ana when the couple arrived on the mat at the end of the April 16, 2025, episode.
"I know when you first came into the race, particularly when things didn't go your way, you were extremely hard on yourself and your team,' he said to Jonathan. 'What's the most important thing you feel like you've learned on this race?"
The dad of two replied, 'If I could learn to become more resilient and to stay confident, through adversity and through the lows, we could maybe have a good shot at winning."
Jonathan responded to the backlash in a video on his and Ana's YouTube channel, 'The Road Less Traveled,' on April 8, 2025. He revealed that, after watching his behavior unfold on The Amazing Race, he sought professional help and was 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 explained, adding that he has an 'hyperactive brain' that was triggered on the show.
'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,' he continued. '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 brought up the moment when he told her to 'stop crying,' admitting that he spoke to her in a 'harsh tone.' However, he said that, at the time, he 'felt like there was a nuclear reactor that was melting down.'
'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,' Jonathan added.
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While Madison doesn't name names, in the early 2010s era she's referencing, paparazzi-outside-nightclubs photos were still how many people got their celebrity news. Literally the same day my manager dropped me, my lawyer dropped me, and my label dropped me. Everything in my life went away within 12 hours. I was 16 and my label was like, 'Good luck.' And I'm like, 'You guys just stole years of my childhood that I'll never get back. And now it's just 'good luck' and 'have fun'? I can't go to college because I've been homeschooled. I have a high school degree and nothing else because of my career. My whole family uprooted and moved to Los Angeles with no connections. I have no friends. Are you guys kidding me?' I hadn't been successful enough. There was a conversation around me when I was 14, I remember people being like, 'She's too sexy' and 'We can't sell the sex because she's so young, so we'd have to wait.' This was a real conversation, grown men talking about how I was too sexy. 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They sometimes do interviews with me just to make fun of me. People around me used to tell me 'Shhh, don't speak back, don't stand up for yourself.' But I'm at this place now where I will happily be like, 'What the fuck are you saying?' if that's how I feel. And who I am is someone who does stand up for themselves — someone who can be a bitch, if that's what you deem it as. If I could have a perfect world, I would not be on social media at all. I don't think there's any way to accurately depict yourself online. I'm so conditioned to everything I say and do on the internet being twisted. Though I do, unfortunately, scroll TikTok for hours on end. I want to delete it but I'd lose all my drafts. I don't have Twitter on my phone anymore. I'm not going to die on this hill begging all of you to see me when you are clearly committed to misunderstanding me. I do miss my fans who are on there though —I used to talk to them on Twitter all the time. I really had to ask myself: If I'm going to live, what do I want my life to look like and who am I going to be? It's taken me so long and I'm obviously still doing so much work on myself. But yeah, it's been a fucking journey. There've been so many situations in my life where I've been burned….I've been betrayed in every single way. It's really painful. I guess I just got to a point where I was like, 'Feel your feelings about it.' That's me coping with things. I don't fuck with wallowing in misery because I've done that and it doesn't end well. I'd rather be real with myself, like, Okay, you went through this, you can't change it. What are we going to do now? But I also try to be a joyous person that's loving life and has more empathy than judgment. Even for the people who almost bullied me into killing myself. We're alive for a short period of time. I called my mum three nights ago because she is the kindest, most loving person, and she always taught me and my brother about empathy. My dad's amazing, too, but that specific generosity, going out of my way for people, that's really Tracie Beer. I'd done something generous for someone and I was having a reflective moment like, 'I'm so thankful that you're my mum and that you gave me this heart.' It's important to let people know how they positively affect you. I've never wanted to turn hard and cold against the world because I think there are beautiful, amazing people out there. Just because I've experienced a bunch of shitty ones doesn't mean everyone is bad. You've got to try to keep your heart open. Yes. But also, don't get it twisted. Don't mistake my kindness for weakness. Sometimes when people hear me talk, they're like, 'She likes to pretend like she's such an angel.' I'm like, 'Girl, no one's pretending like they're an angel.' I have plenty of demons in my closet. If you fuck with me, I'm going to be the one that's going off on you. I take the way I'm treated very seriously. Don't mess with me. 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I cut my meet-and-greets down to 30 people and I have a no-phones rule because of my trust issues. I want to be open with my fans in these conversations, I tell them secrets. Someone posted a video they took secretly and all of the comments were like, 'Delete this. She says she doesn't want this. Do not talk about things that happened in the Q&A.' And I'm like, thank you. I finally have a team around me that gives a fuck. I want to feel like I'm having fun because, hello? We're not working at NASA. We're not doing life-or-death work. Of course, music is so important, but let's loosen up a little and not be so goddamn serious all the time. And by the way, I can already hear the people on Twitter being like, 'Well, this is why you're not as big as the other girls, girl.' And you know what? Maybe it is. Or maybe it is because I prioritise my life and my mental health more than my career. I'm really proud of where I'm at and I'm not putting all of my self-worth into my career. To be so honest with you, a lot of my self-worth is based on the way I look. I'm trying to change that, but it's so deep-rooted. It's been ingrained in me since I was young because of people focusing on superficial bullshit. Unfortunately, that's manifested itself into a place where if I'm breaking out or I've gained five pounds or I don't feel pretty, I don't feel like I'm worth anything. That's genuinely my most real answer and it came into my head and I was like, Okay, do I say this? But it's important because I think a lot of young girls can relate. If you don't feel hot, you feel like you're nothing. It sucks. I've gotten better by not wearing makeup or by going out in sweatpants, by not feeling 'hot' all the time. It's a double-edged sword, because people are like, 'Oh, boo-hoo, people think you're pretty.' That's not at all what I'm saying. I'm trying to say that I feel like I have a lot more to offer. It feels like the opposite of who I am. 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What we're told from so young is 'Be pretty, be hot.' Society just continues to perpetuate this. It's terrible. I don't want my self-worth to be caught up in that because when I feel the best about myself is when I'm performing. Or when I meet somebody and we have a beautiful moment of connection. For sure. I love people. I meet someone, I love them. I'm like, 'Okay, I'm never letting you go. You'll be with me forever until you hurt me.' That's the deal. I think I also, because I have such a weird life and never feel safe and comfortable with someone, when I cross that line of 'you're my boyfriend,'6 it feels really big. 6. Madison is dating Nick Austin, a TikTok star and influencer. I really don't. I joke that I'm a sapiosexual,7 because honestly, make me laugh and we're good. Truthfully. Sometimes also there's just a…thing. 7. Meaning someone who is attracted to another person's intelligence. Yeah. You could literally look so different from anyone I've ever been with. 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- San Francisco Chronicle
Aging is the real killer in Bay Area author's latest serial killer tale
According to popular fiction, being a serial killer is troublingly easy, a game played by people with near-supernatural intelligence and abilities. But Samantha Downing knows the truth. 'Killing people is hard work,' the Novato-born novelist says. 'Besides the actual physical work of murder, there's the cleanup and technology to deal with, along with setting up an alibi and dealing with the police. It's a young person's game.' But while pop culture abounds with actively homicidal anti-heroes in the prime of their lives (look no further than the currently airing 'Dexter: Resurrection' for a slew of 'em), we hear less about killers in the senior set. This, even though America's aging population is one of the greatest social forces of our time. Downing changes all that with 'Too Old For This,' her latest thriller. Like Hannibal Lecter, the arguable gold standard of killers for whom you root, Lottie Jones spent much of her youth killing people who were rude to her. Also like Lecter (who, based on his age in 'Silence of the Lambs' would be 84 today), she's a senior citizen, a 75-year-old with many of the infirmities that come with age. So when Jones has to return to her old ways — this time, to keep her murderous past under wraps — it's a lot tougher than she expected. But unlike Lecter, Jones is willing to set aside her ego and sense of self to get what she wants. In her case, that means leaning into society's low expectations for the elderly to avoid suspicion, by feigning borderline dementia and adopting a walker-aided shuffle when under scrutiny. 'Lottie knows that older women are invisible in society,' Downing says. 'She isn't as physically capable as she used to be, and she uses it to her advantage the same way a lot of younger women act like they can't lift something or open a jar.' A sharp woman's willingness to play the old and doddering crone has a rich history in crime fiction: Agatha Christie's famous detective, Miss Marple, is a great example of how ladies with grey hair are so frequently underestimated when murder is afoot. It's far rarer that we see imaginary men take that route, notes true crime author Sara DiVello, the interviewer behind YouTube series ' Mystery and Thriller Mavens.' 'When men know what they're doing — which often involves being dispassionate and calculating — people say they're strategic visionaries, they're geniuses. When women are capable, they're hated, they're feared. If you're too old to be cute, then you have to be unthreatening. You have to hide who you are if you want to get ahead. It's infuriating' Like DiVello, Lottie has been enraged by this inequity for years, often to the point of murder. So there's a pleasant symmetry to how she turns that bias to her advantage when she has to start killing again. The idea for a less able killer came to Downing during a health crisis of her own. 'I was always really healthy and fit,' the 56-year-old says. But a serious illness temporarially limited her mobility. 'I couldn't be active, and had to adapt and adjust to a new reality. I hated it and was so angry, so I channeled it all into Lottie. I'd been writing a different story about a much younger protagonist who didn't have any of these problems, and I threw it all away.' Downing, who has since made a full recovery, says the experience provided her with an important subtext for her book. 'I like to use serial killing as a vehicle to tell a story,' she says, citing filmmaker George Romero, whose 'Night of the Living Dead' series revolutionized the horror genre. 'He used to say that the zombies don't matter, and that he's interested in telling a human story about how people react to the zombies.' So for Downing, 'This isn't a thriller about serial killers. This is a thriller about aging,' with Lottie's dismemberments of various victims broken up by visits to the doctor for medication adjustments, joint pain, and conflicts with members of her church group. Sure, fears that she might get caught hang over Lottie every step of the way, but so do her worries over how long she can live independently — and what she'll do when she can't. Downing's unflinching look at the specific anxieties faced by a woman who is aging alone is unusual for the genre, and it's a telling reveal of societal biases that Lottie's sometimes-desperate calculations around how long she can afford to keep living are some of the most unsettling in the book. Most of us can talk about murder all day long. It's entertainment, right? But far fewer of us make cocktail party chit-chat about how those last years before one's natural end of life might play out. In many ways, the same skills that made Lottie a successful killer are what will help her navigate that time most of us prefer not to think about. 'She can look directly at things that most people want to avoid,' Downing says. 'That's one of the benefits of being a sociopath. You know how to make a really, really good plan.'
