‘The Challenge’ Star Johnny Bananas Opens up About Former Castmate Tyler Duckworth’s Sudden Death

A little more than two months after Tyler Duckworth passed away at the age of 44, Johnny Bananas opens up about his former The Challenge and Real World castmate’s death.

While promoting The Challenge: Cutthroat, Bananas spoke about Duckworth. “I think one of the hardest parts about losing somebody close to you, or losing someone you’ve known for so long, is everyone wants to think it’s their fault somehow, right,” he shared. “I think everybody did that.”

Bananas further admitted he blamed himself “in some capacity” because he previously lost touch with Duckworth.

“This is just how it is with people in your reality family or just your family in general,” he explained. “You’ll go for really long periods of time where you don’t speak and don’t catch up, and you haven’t spoken in a while, but you almost do it, never thinking that, well, if I don’t talk to this person, I might not ever be able to talk to them again.”

The MTV star also pointed out, “And that’s what was really hard for me — after Tyler passed — just thinking back and just kind of wishing that I would have had more time to connect with him and I would have, you know, spent more time with him.”

Bananas went on to say Duckworth got a “pretty unfair shake” in his reality TV career. “He brought so much laughter and so much energy and so much physicality. People remember Tyler for his antics, and his precision high kicks, and his love for Michelle Kwan and gymnastics, and his crazy outfits. What they don’t remember him for is just what an absolutely incredible force he was on the show in a physical sense.”

Duckworth’s mom, Joni, announced his passing on Aug. 13 in a Facebook post. The Grand Forks Police Department said officers found him in his apartment after his downstairs neighbors called to report water coming through the ceiling.

The water had come from Duckworth’s bathtub.

Officials said at the time that it was not clear how long Duckworth had been deceased.