Laurel and Cara Maria's Long-Running Feud on and off 'The Challenge' Explained

Shows like The Challenge have a way of taking players who might become friends in real life and pitting them against each other. But with most seasons of the Paramount Plus series, it's all about playing for yourself and trying to take home that cash prize at the end. And during The Challenge: All-Stars 4, we see a long-standing rivalry rear its ugly head once again between longtime players Laurel Stucky and Cara Maria Sorbello.

But what started this feud between Laurel and Cara, and is there any hope of the two players coming together rather than continuing to battle it out on the show? It's no secret among fans that there have been issues between the women over the years, so is it really a huge shocker that they're butting heads on All-Stars too?

The reality stars have a long history of being rivals on the competition series after first meeting on Fresh Meat II in 2010. However, the pair became friends on The Challenge: Rivals after they were forced to compete together, even earning themselves a second-place win. No longer in each other’s corners, what happened between Laurel and Cara Maria?

In a previous season of The Challenge, Laurel revealed in her confessional interview that she and Cara are no longer friends because she “started being shady.”

The contestant added, “She was really into getting followers and getting fame which is not, like, one of my priorities. I don’t know who Cara Maria is. I don’t think Cara Maria knows who Cara Maria is.” Ouch!

However, Cara did not feel the same, at least at that tim e. “In her good moments, she’s been the kindest, most beautiful soul imaginable. She has been by my side literally the worst of the worst times — there’s so much heart and love in her,” she told People in September 2019. “In other times, it’s like as soon as I don’t need her, if I’m confident in what I’m doing, that’s when she tries to push me back down.”

Cara continued, “Our relationship came down to she was there for me when I needed her, but she didn’t want to be there for me as an equal. I feel like her thing is she wants to make me smaller.” One thing the pair can agree on, is that they see no reconciliation in the near future.  

“I’m not going to be mean to her, but I just don’t have anything to talk to her about. We don’t have the same values, and I think her priorities are off,” Laurel explained to People. “I have a huge focus right now on only bringing things into my life that make me feel good, that keep me healthy, and she’s not one of those people.”

In 2022, Laurel shared on Johnny “Bananas” Devenanzio’s podcast, Death, Taxes and Bananas, that the feud began because Cara "annoyed" her. And from there, it became and up and down game of the ladies being frenemies, in-show enemies, and actual friends at different times throughout the years.

In the May 29, 2024 episode of The Challenge: All-Stars, Cara and Laurel are still gunning for each other. They're still intent on taking each other out, and Laurel believes Cara has isolated herself too much to have any allies in the house.

"There is really only one person in this house that thinks they're better than everyone else, and it's Cara," Laurel tells producers. "I'm so sick of it at this point. The fact that you're going around like you think you own this game... you don't. And I'm going to prove to you that you don't."

Outside of the show, things might be a different story between Cara and Laurel. At least for now. In January 2024, Kyland Young shared some photos with the cast from behind the scenes at the reunion. In one photo, Cara and Laurel are flanking either side of Kyland and they look, dare we say, happy? It's possible that for once, they left the game play on the show.

Watch new episodes of The Challenge: All-Stars on Wednesdays on Paramount Plus.