Roman and Harleymoon Kemp were crowned the winners of Celebrity Race Across the World 2025, with seven weeks of the contest coming down to an incredibly close sprint against runners-up Tyler West and Molly Rainford.
Now, the brother and sister have opened up on some of the unseen moments from the journey through Central America, from rows about money to medical emergencies.
They also looked back on the tense final scenes that could have seen either of the top two pairs win the race, as well as admitting they would have stepped aside to let one of their rivals win.
Harleymoon joined The One Show presenter and Capital FM host Roman for his You About? podcast, where they looked back on their adventure together for the BBC One series which concluded on Thursday, 11 December. It saw Anita Rani and her dad Bal finish third, while Dylan Llewellyn and his mum Jackie dropped out before the final leg began over a lack of money.
Why the Kemps were so shocked to win
Roman and Harleymoon Kemp celebrate winning Celebrity Race Against The World (BBC/PA)
The final leg was the only one that Roman and Harleymoon came first in during the entire contest, but Harleymoon told her brother there were other reasons she had not expected to win.
She said of the start of the contest: “I thought you weren’t going to make it, I’m not going to lie, on the first night. I thought ‘What have we signed up for?'”
Although the siblings were close friends by the end of the show, in the early days, Roman struggled with wanting to keep tight control of the purse strings and worrying about their next move.
Roman, who came third in I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here! in 2019, said: “I had the same feeling I had on I’m a Celeb. You’ve just got to get through the first couple of nights. Because you’re adjusting to it, you’re adjusting to new people.”
Scariest moments, from spiders to storms
Roman has said before that he found Celebrity Race Across the World harder than I’m a Celebrity, but drew parallels between the two shows as he said of the race: “There were still tarantulas in our beds.”
The pair had visited a Guatemalan ecolodge in one episode, which appeared to be a highlight of the trip.
Roman Kemp swapped I’m a Celeb camp for the real jungle. (BBC)
But Harleymoon explained the reality of the lodge as she said: “It didn’t make the show, but where we slept that night was essentially a chicken shed in the jungle and when we walked in, I remember having to really hold it together so (Roman) didn’t think I was freaked out.
“There were these school medical-style beds covered in bugs and spiders… no real nets. There were spiders all over the bed, but I was so tired, I just brushed them away. We saw a tarantula outside the door.”
In the final episode, teams were not allowed to cross the Darian Gap, an area of dense Panama jungle fraught with dangers, including people trafficking. Roman and Harleymoon faced a 9.5-hour boat journey to reach the finish line in Colombia, but had to make the crossing during a storm.
The Kemps faced some rough parts of the journey. (BBC)
Roman said it was “near on the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done in my life, and I’ve done sky diving, bungee jumping.”
“I remember having my hand on the back of your life jacket and thinking if we go over here, I’ve got you, and I can swim,” he told his sister.
Rows on the road
Roman and Harleymoon might have had fewer sibling clashes than they’d expected, but they did run into a few tense confrontations with other people during the race.
Explaining how much it had meant to them, Harleymoon said, “I really was surprised by how quickly we were lost in the race. I thought I would always be aware [that] this is just a game, but I was screaming for the bus, I was running as fast as I could to not miss the connection because I cared so much.”
The race didn’t always run smoothly. (BBC)
Recalling one nightmare journey that saw their bus break down moments after setting off and before they had even left the car park, Roman admitted they had lost their cool.
“Harley’s nearly punching the bloke behind the desk because he won’t give us our money back, which is ridiculous,” he said, as she added that the row scene was never shown. He continued: “It was a fair argument. Those bits you don’t see, the real frustration behind it.”
At the checkpoint in El Salvador, it was Roman’s turn to get annoyed. He explained they had been running through a town looking for the checkpoint and had asked a passerby for directions. He said: “He gives us directions in the clip, but the first thing he said wasn’t that, and it was so annoying.”
Harleymoon revealed the man had asked: “What’s it worth to you?” as Roman confessed: “I wanted to hit him. Obviously, I would never, but in my brain, oh my god.
“You don’t look at someone running for their lives, sweating, and go, ‘what’s it worth to you?’ You just tell them where to go!”
Harleymoon’s unseen illness
Harleymoon faced a tough night on a desert island. (BBC)
One of Roman’s favourite parts of the race was a stop off at the Guna Yala islands in the final episode, where they spent time on a tiny island occupied by just one family.
However, Harleymoon revealed that she had suffered a tough night in the hammocks, which didn’t make it to air.
She shared: “I woke up in the night with such bad period pain. I woke up in the night, and we were on an island, there was no real toilets, no shower. I am rolling around on the floor to the point where the pain is so bad that I go blind. Then I’m crawling on my hands and knees trying to find the medic.
“It went on all night, which is why I wasn’t in that next scene where you went into the jungle, because it made me so unwell.”
Celebrity Race Across the World’s closest ever ending
At one point in the final episode, there were just seconds between the Kemps and their closest rivals, Tyler West and Molly Rainford.
Harleymoon admitted she had screamed when they saw their rivals were right next to them, looking for the final checkpoint.
Celebrity Race Across the World 2025 had a nailbiting finale. (BBC)
“I was scared because it was them and they’re so fit,” she explained. “All of a sudden, this wash of fear came over me, and it was like a bad dream where I was running and felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. You said I looked like I had rigor mortis.”
West and Rainford edged ahead of them in a race to the shore to get a boat to the finish line, and Roman said that their rivals had actually made it into a boat six seconds before them. However, West and Rainford’s boat’s motor stalled, giving the Kemps just enough time to sprint up a rocky cliff and reach the check-in book first.
(L-R) Molly Rainford and Tyler West, Roman Kemp and sister Harleymoon, Anita Rani and father Bal, and Dylan Llewellyn with mother Jackie in BBC1’s Celebrity Race Across The World (Studio Lambert/BBC/PA)
But when Harleymoon asked her brother what he would have done had it been Dylan Llewellyn and his mum Jackie they were racing against, he admitted it would have been a “horrible moral choice” because he loved the pair so much and said that he would probably have let them win.
How the race changed Roman and Harleymoon Kemp
Unsurprisingly, the race was a life-changing experience for those involved. Harleymoon said: “I’ve since come home and turned all my (phone) notifications off. No Instagram, no WhatsApp, the only thing I get is a phone call. I have to check my phone and go into the apps.”
Roman added, “I think it changes your perspective on what’s important. Meeting that family (on Guna Yala), it’s the most gap year thing to say, but it makes you realise how much of our lives is affected by things that don’t matter.”
He continued: “There’s so much more to live for than what we think we have to live for now. There are so many beautiful parts of the world, different forms of happiness…that’s the biggest thing I learned.”
Harleymoon told her brother, “I hope we continue to see each other more.”
Celebrity Race Across the World is available to stream now on BBC iPlayer.