Kam Williams was just eight months postpartum with her first child when she filmed season 4 of The Challenge: All Stars in 2023. However, she exclusively tells In Touch that it was a “really simple” decision to return to the show after taking a few years off.
“I just missed it,” Kam, 29, admits. “So I asked myself, I’m like, ‘If my baby wasn’t a factor, would I be saying yes?’ And the answer to that was, ‘Yes.’ And I’m a strong believer in just because you become a mom, your life shouldn’t stop. You shouldn’t stop doing things that you enjoy.”
The Are You the One? alum says that she wanted to get rid of the stigma that moms can’t compete on the physically demanding show. “We see Challenge dads all the time,” she points out. “They compete. They rarely take breaks. And I wanted to really change that. There are a lot of mothers in the workplace and stuff that have to go back to work. We don’t, within this country, even get a lot of paid maternity leave and stuff like that. Sometimes we have to get right back to it. So I’m no different from any mom out there, having to get back out there to provide for my family.”
Kam is engaged to fellow All Stars 4 contestant Leroy Garrett, who had previously said he was retiring from the franchise after competing on Ride or Dies in 2020. “Initially, I got the phone call, and then I’m like, ‘OK, I definitely want him to come with me,’” Kam reveals. “So they were like, ‘Wait, can you get him out of retirement?’ and I’m like, ‘Of course I can!’”
Part of Leroy’s decision to come back also stemmed from struggles he was facing after becoming a dad, Kam says. “I think a lot of people don’t talk about how much of a big life change that becoming a parent is for fathers, as well,” the MTV star explains. “So I saw him going through that moment and it’s because he put everything before himself. I thought, ‘What better way to remind you of just being yourself than to do this show that we love?’”
Kam and Leroy, 38, got engaged in 2022, just weeks before their son, Kingston’s, birth. After All Stars 4, Kam got pregnant again, and they welcomed a baby girl, Aria, in February. Both children were born via C-section.
“With C-sections, it takes so long for you to heal from them,” Kam points out. “So I was very cautious of that [while training for The Challenge] because they had to cut through so many layers to bring my baby out. So I definitely gave my body a lot of grace and I was comfortable with coming back to All Stars, specifically, because I’m like, ‘Maybe they’ll take it a little bit easier on us as opposed to the flagship [show].’ And I think that they did.”
While Kam and Leroy obviously had each other’s backs on the Paramount+ series, she admits to being “concerned” about her lack of relationships with some of the older veteran players. “If I was going into a flagship season, everybody knows me personally,” Kam says. “I’m like, ‘OK, I’m not going in there with as many friends as I normally would.’ But everybody was so happy to meet me. Everybody knew who I was. I’m like, ‘OK, this is amazing on a personal note, but also for the game in general.’”
The Challenge: All Stars season 4 premieres on Paramount+ Wednesday, April 10.
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