The Challenge's Johnny Bananas Denies Sending Gorilla Emoji at Big Brother Winner Taylor Hale

The drama began with a fairly typical smack-talking post between reality competition series alums. There's a friendly(-ish) rivalry between them that's only grown as more of them are returning to the small screens together to compete on each other's shows, or on new hits like The Traitors, which Devananzio appeared on last year.

Bananas was weighing in on the competitiveness between veterans of these shows when Taylor Hale, who became the first Black woman to win Big Brother when she took home the top prize in 2022, called him and his fans out.

"That yellow fruit man pinned a tweet to his profile at 8AM saying he was looking for engagement, and by 3PM you all gave him exactly what he asked for?," she posted to her X account. "I don’t want to hear a single word if he somehow pops up on every show in the conversation." She wrapped with an upside-down smiley emoji, suggesting the usual playfulness.

In a since-deleted response, Devananzio's official account replied with six banana emojis followed by a gorilla emoji. Immediately, the fandom picked up on the possible racial stereotyping behind such a message.

But according to Devananzio, even as his fellow reality competition stars were railing against the post, he didn't know anything about it. He explained that he'd given up control of his account in conjunction with the promotion for his new meme coin, appropriately called $BANANAS.

"I went back and forth with this company for a few days, putting tweets together that I approved being posted from my social media accounts," he told Variety about the post. "What I did not approve was them to go rogue and start responding to others."

He went on to explain, "There are certain emojis that are symbolic of different things in the crypto world, one being the guerrilla emoji, one being the ape emoji. They symbolize strength, symbolize going in full force."

So his argument is that while the organization he was working with, Step Up Social, may have had innocent intentions in sending that post at Hale, they obviously dramatically missed the mark. He also told Variety he is "strongly considering legal action" against Step Up Social.

"I do not take this situation lightly at all," Devananzio told the outlet. "As soon as I was made aware of what happened, I reached out to Taylor because my main concern was making sure that she had as much clarity as she could have… I wanted to make sure she knew the truth."

Step Up Social also shared a post on social media apologizing to Hale directly about the comment. "We sincerely apologize for the unauthorized content of a recent tweet posted on behalf of Johnny Bananas by our agency designed to promote the $BANANAS cryptocurrency," the organization posted, again reiterating the use of gorilla and ape emojis in that sphere.

"However, given the nature of the reply, it is clear that the content was inappropriate and does not reflect the values of our agency or our client," the statement continued. "We deeply regret any harm this may have caused and are reviewing our internal processes to ensure this does not happen again and we are working closely with Johnny to address the situation and restore trust."

When reached by the outlet for comment, Hale replied that she assured Devananzio she "did not believe the intent of the tweet to be racist," even as she said she "expressed minor frustration" at how long it took him to reach out.

At the same time, she told him that if he would publicly post that a misstep had been made, she would "amplify his acknowledgement of the incident and reiterate that he and I are on good terms." She even said they could "keep the tone of the message light."

But, "No public acknowledgement was made." According to Hale's statement, which she shared in full to her own social media, she was instead contacted by the CEO of Step Up Social to apologize with the aforementioned explanation of the gorilla emoji's use in cryptocurrency.

She told Variety that she contacted Devananzio after this to reiterate that what needed to happen was "a public acknowledgement - as previously discussed - that the tweet was a misstep."

She wrote, "This would absolve him of being accused of racism, and help remove the influx of messages from his fandom saying I look like a manly gorilla - a racist trope against Black Women."

Hale said that Devananzio's response was, "I'm going to for sure, I just wanted to handle everything personally before it was addressed publicly."

For Devananzio's part, he explained his delay to Variety, telling the news outlet, "I would never in a million years want anyone to think that I was capable of being that cruel and offensive. I asked myself, ‘Do I not say anything or do I address this?’"

"I think if there’s one person out there in the world that thinks that this tweet could potentially represent who I am, that’s one person too many," he continued, adding, "I regret any offense that it’s caused, and I really do appreciate those who have taken time to wait until I made my statement, to seek the truth before rushing to judgment and character assassination."

Hale concluded her statement by wondering, "His best friend has been online stating Johnny has spent hours communicating back and forth with mutual friends and MTV PR for advice on how to handle the situation. I am curious what advice was given from all parties involved, considering he received action steps on how to remedy the situation directly from the harmed party - me."

She questioned his choice of "utilizing the multi-day apparatus of media consultation and his external social media representation in lieu of a simple light toned tweet to redirect accountability," saying it "has left me both disappointed and now the recipient of actual racist messages from individuals that claim to be his fans."

While the reality alum reiterated that she does not blame Devananzio for the initial post, she does "hold him responsible for the response."

"Public disrespect should be met with the most immediate public apology through the same medium," Hale argued. "I believe Johnny and i can agree we'd like the narrative of racism to be put to rest, and for the temperature to be brought down on all sides."

After sharing the link to Variety's story on his X account, he added, "While this doesn't erase what happened, I wanted to share some context and clarity on the situation. Grateful to [Hale] and for those who took the time to understand."