NEED TO KNOW
A former contestant on The Biggest Loser is recounting an explosive on-camera confrontation with one of the show’s trainers during her time on season 7
Joelle Gwynn and trainer Bob Harper both shared their sides of the altercation in an episode of Netflix’s three-part Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser docuseries, which premiered Friday, August 15
“I’ve never seen someone get abused like that,” Gwynn said of the experience
A former contestant on The Biggest Loser is recounting an explosive on-camera confrontation with one of the show’s trainers during her time on season 7.
More than 16 years after their argument aired on the NBC reality series, Joelle Gwynn and trainer Bob Harper both shared their sides of the altercation in an episode of Netflix’s three-part docuseries Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser, which premiered Friday, August 15.
“I remember having bruises from working out,” Gwynn said of her time on the dramatic weight loss show and the moment the tension came to a head. “There was a part of me that was like, ‘Let me just get out of here, I’m tired, I’m tired.’ “
Things between the two escalated during a gym workout in a 2009 episode, when Harper, 59, instructed a group of contestants to run on the treadmill.
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“Do not be sloppy. Finish this strong, Joelle,” he warned in a clip from the show. “No, Joelle, don’t do it! Don’t do it. Dig, Joelle, dig!” he said as she struggled to continue in the final seconds.
“What the f—, Joelle? Every single time at 20 seconds, every time, what is it?” he shouted as other contestants, still on their treadmills, exchanged shocked glances.
Courtesy of Netflix
Joelle Gwynn on Netflix’s “Fit for TV: The Reality of The Biggest Loser.”
“Everyone goes for 30 seconds. You don’t come off for 30 seconds, okay? That’s all I’m asking, just do that. God!” Harper continued.
“When Bob starts berating me, I go out of body, that’s the only way – I literally kid you not, I went out of body,” Gwynn said, reflecting on the tense moment. “And everything went really slow motion and I was like, ‘Is this happening?’ “
“I did not trust that they had my back, so I knew to hold some energy myself,” she explained.
Meanwhile, Harper recalled, “My head blew off my shoulders.”
Things quickly devolved into a shouting match. “I’m not trying to quit, I’m not trying to quit!” Gwynn yelled at the time.
“Well then do it, Joelle! Stop saying all these words. Quit talking! I’m sick of just words, words, words, talk, talk, talk! Shut the f— up, just do it! Just stop talking and do it!” Harper responded.
On the Netflix series, Gwynn reflected, “That little country bumpkin of a man berates me in such a way I’ve never seen on the show before.”
“It wasn’t about the treadmill. It was — the picture was bigger than that. It was like her committing to something and finishing it,” Harper said in the new series. “It wasn’t one of my proudest moments.”
For Gwynn, the moment was “very embarrassing.”
“I’ve never seen someone get abused like that. It was very, very, very, very embarrassing,” Gwynn recalled. “It brought me back to home. I’m there because I would get s— like that at home and eat. So you cursing me out doesn’t help me.”
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More than a decade later, Gwynn said the emotional wound still stings. “I do not care for Bob Harper,” she said. “F— you, Bob Harper.”
After her time on the show concluded, Gwynn had a legal dispute with one of the doctors from The Biggest Loser. In June 2016, Dr. Robert Huizenga filed a libel lawsuit against Gwynn and The New York Post after Gwynn claimed the contestants were given illegal drugs to help them shed pounds, per The Hollywood Reporter.
The case was eventually dismissed, with a judge writing, “Plaintiff has failed to allege adequately that the Gwynn Statements were made with actual malice.”
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