Race Across The World sparks bullying row after ‘ageist’ contestant’s brutal attack on her mum
RACE Across The World fans have all said the same thing after one contestant made a brutal ‘ageist’ swipe at her mum during the latest instalment.
Season four of the hit BBC travel show has reached halfway as five teams fight to get to the checkpoint of Koh Phi Phi for a chance to walk away with the eye-watering £20k cash prize.
Race Across The World follows five teams that are given strict rules while travelling across Eastern Asia by bus, train and on foot for a chance to win a life-changing top prize.
The teams are racing against the clock, covering 15,000 kilometres in several countries as they travel from Japan to Lombok.
In Wednesday’s episode, the teams were tasked with making their way through Thailand and started running low on their given budgets.
During the instalment, Isabel, 25, and mum Eugenie, 61, are seen bonding and spending quality time together, but bickered quite a bit throughout their journey.
While Isabel planned to take her mum off course and sweep her off to a picturesque waterfall, a comment she made in her confessionals seemed to rub viewers the wrong way.
As she addressed the audience at home, she expressed: “Mum’s an ogre when she’s not had sleep.
“Snappy, she’s ridiculously snappy. Mum hates me saying this, but she is getting very old.
“It will be nice to actually be able to know a bit more about her and just be there and know that you’re actually catering for her needs.
“A waterfall is not necessarily my cup of tea but I do think it might be something she needs.”
Following her comments, viewers took to social media and accused the young backpacker of ‘ageism’.
Taking to X, one viewer teased: “Just checking that Eugenie is only 60 and not 102 years old as Isabel seems to think she is #RaceAcrossTheWorld.”
“Isabel saying her mum is getting very old she’s 61! Ffs! #raceacrosstheworld,” added another user.
A third penned: “Maybe isabel and her mum needed therapy together instead of #RaceAcrossTheWorld. Your mum is also not old. Wait until they get to 80!”
Another baffled viewer asked: “Did #Isabel just say ‘Mum’s getting very old?’ #RaceAcrossTheWorld.”
After completing the BBC show the mother and daughter duo have revealed a heartwarming promise they made to each other.
Speaking to Yahoo Eugenie said: “I’ve managed to get Isabel to agree for us to go on almost like a backpacking each year, even if it’s for a few days.
“I’ve managed to get Isabel to agree to that until we’ll continue maybe doing that year after year until the situation is that we can’t.”
She added: “We have gone on mini holidays, a city break to Luxembourg together since the race. So definitely we will still be holidaying together.”
Eugenie also discussed her and Isabel’s time together on the show and explained that they had some “belly laughs” while travelling with the incredibly heavy rucksacks.
She said: “It’s inevitable that Race Across the World brought us closer together.
“We’ve got more of an understanding of each other’s personalities and boundaries.
“I learned quite a bit about Isabel and I’m sure she learned quite a bit about me as well as people.”
Eugenie continued: “What is so beautiful is that we’ve got memories that no one else has, it’s just between the two of us.
“And even though we put loads of photographs or we talk to people about it, they still won’t have that full understanding of it.
“It will just be between myself and Isabel. We’ll actually know you know that. How it really was… Sometimes I even pinch myself and think, ‘did we actually really do that?'”
Isabel also opened up about her time on the show with her mum and admitted: “Mum has more of a vulnerable side.
“Growing up I’ve seen more of the tough kind of love approach, she wouldn’t necessarily express that emotional side to me as much.”
She added: “One of the biggest things I learned about mum was just how she was quite resilient through a lot of the hard times.”
Race Across the World stars Alfie and Viv took to the show’s Facebook group last week and shared some intriguing behind-the-scenes secrets about the beloved show.
They exposed the safety measures put in place throughout the competition while they travelled and how the teams had no internet access and were “isolated” from the outside world.
Regarding whether racers could contact home or read the news, Alfie said: “Total isolation – I keep telling people we knew nothing about the Gaza attacks.
“I managed to catch the football scores on billboards but other than that, it’s total silence!”
The 20-year-old also disclosed that due to “safety” reasons, the contestants stayed at secret hotels at each checkpoint for between 36 and 48 hours.
He explained: “Between 36 and 48 [hours], it does change depending on finishing times to make sure nobody leaves at an utterly ridiculous time – mainly for safety.”
Despite hating the competition, Alfie confessed that he would love to participate in the show again.
Elsewhere, Viv revealed that the show was filmed between September and November.
She also shared that contestants had to hand over any money they had left from the race and explained that everyone’s backpacks were “real” and very heavy.
Responding to a fan, she said: “They are real! Mine weighed 11.5kg, and Stephen’s 12.5kg. That was as heavy as we could manage!”
BBC Race Across The World returns every Wednesday at 9pm on BBC One.