Amazing Race's Jonathan Towns Addresses His Negative Behavior on the Show After Backlash From Fans
Jonathan Towns has been deemed the villain of Amazing Race season 37, mostly due to his reactions towards his wife, Ana Rivera Towns. After seeing his behavior play out on TV and receiving hateful criticism from fans, Jonathan sought professional health 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,' Jonathan, 42, said during the April 9 episode of his and Ana's 'The Road Less Traveled' YouTube channel.
'Autism spectrum disorder is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people interact with others, communicate, learnand behave,' according to the National Institute of Mental Health. 'Although autism can be diagnosed at any age, it is described as a 'developmental disorder' because symptoms generally appear in the first two years of life.'
Jonathan explained that he has 'a hyperactive brain,' which was triggered during The Amazing Race.
'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.'
From harshly critiquing his wife's soccer skills to telling Anna, 35, to 'stop whining' and 'crying,' Jonathan landed himself to the bottom of viewers' list of favorites.
'He's just sooo rude to her! I would not tolerate him!' a TikTok user wrote in a clip of Jonathan walking away while Ana struggled with a challenge.
'First episode when they came in second was also a huge red flag, and this just confirmed it,' a third person wrote, while a fourth fan added, 'I wondered if anyone was talking about this!!! Last night's episode was so hard to watch … so immature!!
Jonathan addressed the taxi moment during the YouTube post and admitted he talked to her in 'a harsh tone.'
'But I will just describe what my mindset was 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 explained. '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.'
Jonathan continued that it felt like 'the house [was] on fire' and Ana's emotions felt like 'another fire to put out.'
'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,' he admitted.
Fans reacted to Jonathan's ASD diagnosis in the comments section of the video, and thanked him for his vulnerability.
'Hi, Jonathan & Ana!! Thanks for sharing ... throughout the race, I never understand what had happened ... (but, I noticed there is something 'different' in you, Jonathan. But I don't know what that was),' a fan wrote. 'After watching this, I understand. You are special. Thank you for sharing!'
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