The Amazing Race 34 ended with the racers competing in Nashville, Tennessee. Showbiz Cheat Sheet talked to Claire Rehfuss and Derek Xiao over Zoom on Dec. 8 about the intense finish to the race and their future as a couple.
[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from The Amazing Race 34 Episode 12, “The Only Leg That Matters.”]
Claire and Derek made a change after winning ‘The Amazing Race’
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Q: Did any of the skills or the experience from Big Brother help you out at all with Amazing Race or a completely different beast?
Claire: …Having had experience like being on camera does is a big advantage. I mean, granted in Big Brother, you don’t have a person. You know, it’s like mirrors and cameras in corners. But just the act of like doing a confessional and knowing like, ‘Oh, people are watching me.’
I think that that really helps. And also performing, doing competitions under very high stakes. And you know, I wasn’t good at challenges in Big Brother. You can argue how good I was on Amazing Race, but being able to perform and compete when it’s a really, really high pressure, I think I think that really helped.
Derek: Claire is going to be kind of like my spokesperson today. You know, I’ll be kind of like chipping in when I really want to use my last two vocal strands.
Claire: I’ll also answer how I think Derek would answer this. He would say something about like being steadfast during a challenge. And like Derek always when he was doing challenges, would look for the hack, look for the trick, and try to figure out, how can I game this game and what can I do differently from everyone else?
And that is something that we really took into the race. Like choosing to do the games over the oil, you know, him sprinting through a desert with a metal detector. Any little advantage that we could do, we would seek it out, and we would try to do it.
Q: I want to talk about the smaller prizes before the big one. So you won $2,500 each for placing first. Do you have any plans for that money? And then same as like when are you going to take this trip to Bangkok?
Derek: Honestly, we probably already spent $2,500. Might be gone, I’m sorry to tell you.
Claire: Yeah, I think we spent that before we got it, probably.
Derek: We recently moved out to Los Angeles. We had to get a new apartment. And we have a cat now. Did not realize how much food cats eat. I was like, ‘You’re–I’m paying more for you than I am for myself right now. I’mma put you on a diet.’ So, unfortunately, $2500 is gone. But the good news we have not taken the trips yet.
Claire: We don’t know yet. We haven’t got like the paperwork for these checks, but hopefully, we’re gonna go soon. So I’m very excited for it. Check them out. Check out Bangkok. Check out London, I think would be like so fun. Such a blast.
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Q: You talked about the million dollars would help you guys figure out your lives together. Has there been any more figuring out since filming?
Derek: Yeah, I think so. We’ve, like, signed an apartment lease together. Oh, so, like, we’ve officially moved in. Though we’ve been living together, you know, it was kind of like was it called when you…it was out of wedlock the equivalent because we weren’t–it was out of contract.
Claire: His name was never on a lease. You know, it was like maybe Venmo me rent. But now we’re good. We actually have an apartment together. We do have a little cat.
Derek: Like, we’ve, like, settled down a little bit more.
Claire: Yeah, I think so. It’s like our life was so hectic after Big Brother and, like, being, you know, thrust into this world. And now it kind of feels like, OK, maybe this is a–the, you know? It’s like it’s I think you said it’s like the second chapter, and now we get to go and like live the rest of our lives.
Claire and Derek learned how they deal with stress after ‘Big Brother 23’
Q: What have you guys learned about each other living together just you and not like, 15 other people?
Derek: I think well, on Big Brother, we were…So we’re in the house together for like 50 days, but then we’re in jury together for like almost the same amount of time, maybe less. And I feel like during that time, because there’s nothing else to do, nothing distract you, no phones, no communication with literally anyone else. You get to know each other like very well.
And I thought that I knew everything there was. I was proven, so wrong. So, so, so wrong. I remember after Big Brother finished, me and Claire took a trip to Mexico and I was really excited about this. So I was like, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to go to Mexico. We’re going to hit the beaches. A little bit of surfing, tanning.’ We get to Mexico City the first night, and we’re trying to figure out, oh, it’s kind of funny because we just won the race, but–
Claire: We’re trying to navigate.
Derek: The first day. We’re trying to navigate to a restaurant, and we get to the biggest argument we’ve ever had, just trying to figure out how do we walk to this restaurant because we can’t walk through this neighborhood. I was like, Oh, we have to take this bus. I was like, Claire, that’s not a running bus. I was like, ‘Put it in Google Maps.’ She was like, ‘Google’s down.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean Google is down?’
Claire: Google? What’s happening?!
Derek: So there was a lot that we had to learn about each other on like, how do we handle stress almost? Like how do we handle hard situations? And I feel like that is what we’ve learned of like in regular life, you have more stimulus, thank you have one Big Brother. Big Brother, 98% of the day you’re sitting on a couch.
Claire: Yeah.
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Derek: And it’s like, OK, cool. Everyone’s going to be in a really good mood if you’re just sitting on a couch eating food. But like when things get hard, when things get choppy and out of things, hey, how do people handle that? How do you react? How do we communicate with each other?
Claire: Yeah, like I think we learned at the core of who the other person was, right? But then once you get off the show, it’s like, what are they like with their phone? What are they like with their friends?
Like, there are so many aspects you don’t know. And yeah, how do you handle stress? Because, like in Big Brother, I wanted people to like me all the time. So like, even when I’m like stressed, or I’m like, like, you just have to put on a good face and be like, ‘Oh, well, I’m affable, like, OK, I’m not getting into fights.’
And when you’re with the person sometimes you care the most about, sometimes you know, you’re a little more trigger happy to get into fights. And so we, you know, you have to figure that out, and you have to deal with that. And the race really makes you deal with it. And it’s sink or swim, basically.
Derek joked about proposing to embarrass Claire at ‘The Amazing Race’ finale
Q: Has going on TAR strengthened your relationship and the way you communicate with each other?
Claire: I think the race really taught us what the other person needs in time of stress, in times of panic, because we cope very differently. We have different reactions to stress, different reactions to everything, basically.
And so figuring out like, OK, what can I tell you that will reassure you? Or what do you need me to say? Or how do you need me to show up for you?
And we had talked about that before, and we thought we knew. But sometimes you don’t really know yourself until you are put in environments like this. And it’s like, OK, actually, this is what I need. And we would really look at like, OK, when are we fighting? What’s going on there? Let’s try to figure this out.
So it was like we had to approach it like kind of analytically and figure out like, how do we how can we best communicate? And we’ve been able to use that in our day-to-day life. And I think it’s made us much stronger as a couple.
Derek: Yeah, I agree with that.
Q: Derek, you really toyed with a lot of us who love you guys after you won the prize and everything. Derek, you were acting like you were going to ask a certain question. Can you address that? Is there any marriage talk or engagement talk?
Derek: No.
Claire: No.
Derek: I feel like when we were watching past seasons of the race, we saw…I think we saw other people. And I always thought, it’ll be like funny. I was like, Claire, what would you do if I just proposed at the finish line? Because I know Claire hates attention, and it would just be like her least favorite thing.
Claire: It would be the worst thing possible for me. Like, so happy Will and James did it. But no, no, please. I was like, if you propose, I will say no. Like I will do that to you.
Derek: So I always thought I was, like, funny just because I just know, like. Claire hate would hate that so much. We always, like, joke about it. And then I didn’t think we’d actually win.
So we’re standing at the finish line, ‘I’m like, Oh sh*t, I can actually do it.’ I can do the thing. Then Phil threw me an Ollie-Oop and was like, ‘Any questions you want to ask, Derek?’ I was like, ‘OK, let’s do this thing!’ I was like, Dude, it’s go time.
This interview has been condensed for this article.
More ‘Amazing Race’ exit interviews from Showbiz Cheat Sheet
‘The Amazing Race 34’: Aubrey and David’s Advice to Future Alternates
‘The Amazing Race’: Marcus Says It Wasn’t ‘a Surprise’ to See Claire and Derek Helping Another Team
‘The Amazing Race’: Quinton and Mattie Reveal They Were Pulled Over, Rules in the Race, and More
‘The Amazing Race’: Glenda and Lumumba on Their Car Crash and Strengthening Their Marriage
‘The Amazing Race’: Abby and Will Dream for Round Two After Shocking Ending to Their Race
‘The Amazing Race 34’: Sharik Addresses Sabotage Accusations, ‘I Was Dying, so I Needed to Finish’
‘The Amazing Race 34’: Rich and Dom React to Sharik Almost Quitting and Their Own Stress
‘The Amazing Race 34’: Rex and Tim Reveal Their Routine to Drop 50 Pounds
‘The Amazing Race 34’: Aastha and Nina on Their Slow Start and Double Dates With Claire and Derek
