Roman and Harleymoon Kemp have been crowned the winners of Celebrity Race Across the World 2025, in a nail-biting finale that saw them in a head-to-head race to the finish line with Tyler West and Molly Rainford.
It was a thrilling conclusion to the BBC series as the four celebrity duos of broadcaster Anita Rani and her dad, Bal; actor Dylan Llewellyn and his mum, Jackie; showbiz couple DJ Tyler West and actor Molly Rainford; and broadcaster Roman Kemp and his singer-songwriter sister Harleymoon headed for Uribia, Colombia.
As the winning pair crossed the finish line, Roman exclaimed, “We did it”, before Harleymoon added, “I don’t understand that we’ve come first, let’s write our names before they get here to make sure it’s true.”
Roman added that the journey was “the most adrenaline, most emotion that I’ve had ever”.
Harleymoon continued: “I could hear the rocks crumbling behind me where they were so close. I’ve never run like that in my whole life.”
Molly Rainford and Tyler West claimed second place, arriving at the finish line just seconds after the Kemps, 20 metres behind the winning pair. Anita Rani and dad, Bal, finished in third place, six hours after the first two teams.
Dylan Llewellyn and mum Jackie on Celebrity Race Across the World. (BBC screenshot)
Dylan and Jackie had to withdraw from the race early in the final leg after falling too far behind, and running out of money. “We gave our all,” explained Jackie. “We’ve tried our hardest, and we just want to bow out on our own terms, with our heads held high,” added Dylan, explaining that they couldn’t complete the race with just 10% budget left.
The six-part BBC series saw the teams travelling 5,900km across Central America from the idyllic Caribbean island of Isla Mujeres off the coast of Mexico, through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia, to the finishing line of Uribia, on the PenÃnsula de La Guajira, Colombia.
How Roman Kemp and Harleymoon who Celebrity Race Across the World
Molly Rainford and Tyler West started the final leg in the lead. (BBC/Studio Lambert)
Strictly couple Tyler West and Molly Rainford had the advantage at the start of the race, having been the first team to reach the final checkpoint hotel in MedellÃn, Colombia, allowing them to start the final 1,000km leg first.
Siblings Roman and Harleymoon Kemp were the next to leave the final checkpoint, 31 minutes later. Anita and Bal had arrived at the checkpoint hotel 18 hours behind the Kemps, while Dylan and Jackie arrived in last place, dropping down the leaderboard from first to fourth place, and only had 10% of their budget remaining for the final stretch.
The teams faced a decision over whether to travel across the country inland or follow the tourist trail along the Caribbean coast to reach their final destination. One was more direct, while the other had more transport options.
Each team was tasked with reaching the small Colombian city of Uribia on the PenÃnsula de La Guajira. Molly and Tyler took the coastal route, heading to backpacker destination Cartengena on an overnight bus, hoping to find an onward passage from there. The Kemps headed for Barranquilla, planning to city-hop onwards to the finishing line, taking a 14-hour overnight bus to their next stop, before they realised they could have travelled further if they had bought a different ticket.
Taking a different tack, Anita Rani and dad, Bal, opted to take a more direct route, heading inland.
As the three teams continued on their journey, they received the news that Dylan and Jackie had withdrawn from the race. “That’s really sad news, man”, said Tyler West to Molly Rainford.
“You cannot underestimate just how difficult this race is,” added Anita Rani.
As the race continued, the teams reflected on their journeys. Rani’s father, Bal, admitted he had decided it was time to retire and spend time travelling.
Molly and Tyler headed out from Cartagena with just 10% of their budget remaining, aiming for Riohacha, and caught their bus with seconds to spare. Anita and Bal found themselves falling behind after getting stuck in Bucaramanga, while the two other teams continued on.
Anita Rani and dad Bal embracing on Celebrity Race Across the World 2025 (BBC)
Anita Rani opened up about her recent divorce, thanking her father for standing “100 per cent behind her”, and the pair enjoyed an emotional hug as he shared how proud he was of his broadcaster daughter, as she admitted it had been “a tough few years”.
The teams then faced a setback after being slapped with another night travel ban, after being told by the production team that the roads between Riohacha and Uribia “have been deemed unsafe”. This left Molly, Tyler, and the Kemps at a standstill.
They then both set off at first light, but faced difficulties with taxis after initially hailing local cars that wouldn’t travel to their desired destinations.
Celebrity Race Across the World 2025 had a nailbiting finale. (BBC)
Arriving in Uribia, the Kemps spotted West and Rainford arriving at the same time. With their GPS devices guiding them to the finish lines, both teams took off on foot and had to hail 4×4 cars to reach the final checkpoint, crossing into a desert as the landscape changed around them, heading for the northernmost point of Colombia.
Both teams raced neck and neck to catch up to the final checkpoint, first catching boats, setting up a foot race to the finish line, with the Kemps reaching the shore first after Molly and Tyler’s boat suffered some engine problems. The teams faced an uphill charge to the book, but it was Roman and Harleymoon Kemp who signed the book first.
As West and Rainford watched the winning pair write their names in the guestbook, West said he was “proud” despite not winning, and added: “The fact that we were here, 20m away and if it weren’t for a broken engine, we’d be first on that list, I’m not worried, that’s life isn’t it?”
Becoming emotional, Rainford added: “I think they’re a mixture of happy tears, just absolute shock and pride.”
Celebrity Race Across the World streams on BBC iPlayer.