Trista Sutter Initially Said ‘Hell No’ to Joining Special Forces Season 3

Trista Sutter jumped at the chance to join season 3 of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test with a little help from her family.

The OG Bachelorette, 52, opened up about her casting on the Fox competition series on the Sunday, November 17, episode of the “Almost Famous” podcast, revealing that Ashley Iaconetti told her at The Golden Wedding in January that she suspected Sutter would be approached about the show.

“I was like, ‘You’re crazy. There’s no way, first of all, they’re gonna want me, and second of all, that I would do that. That is a crazy town show,’” Sutter stated, noting that her fellow Bachelor Nation star’s suspicions were eventually confirmed a few months later.

“I work with [talent agent] Paul Desisto, and they contacted him and said they were interested in having me on the show. And he goes, ‘Would you do Special Forces?’” Sutter shared, adding that she responded: “Hell no!”

Trista was initially turned off by the idea, thinking Special Forces would be something her husband, Ryan Sutter, would be better suited for. However, it was Ryan, 50, who helped encourage her to give it a shot.

“Ryan was like, ‘Why wouldn’t you? This would be an incredible experience for you?’” she said. “And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Oh, oh God. Are you kidding? Really? You think this would be a good thing?’ And then he did, like, flip my mind.”

The couple’s kids — son Maxwell, 17, and daughter Blakesley, 15 — also played a big role in her decision to do the show. “At this point in time, I was really struggling with who I’m gonna be when my kids go off to college, like, when we’re empty nesters,” the self-described “stay-at-home and work mom” explained. “But I pour myself into our kids and that’s my primary job is household manager, stay-at-home mom, all of that stuff. And I’m like, ‘Who am I gonna be, truly, who am I gonna be, who do I want to be when my kids are gone?’”

She continued: “And I really was like, ‘You know what? I feel like this will give me such a good perspective on what I want out of life [and] get back to the real me. Not that I’m not the real [me] with my kids, but get back to who I am at my core, who Trista is, not just Trista as the mom, Trista as the wife, Trista as the friend, whatever. Just who Trista is.”

Trista also came to view Special Forces as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” and wanted to compete in honor of her husband. “Ryan would have loved to be there,” she said on the podcast. “I actually, I’m gonna talk to the Fox people tomorrow and put his name in the ring, and I’m gonna put his name over and over because he would thrive in this environment. He wanted to be in the military, [but] he’s colorblind. It never happened.”

Sutter was announced as one of the third season’s celebrity contestants earlier this month. Her casting comes months after Ryan revealed Trista was away from their family on a project in a series of cryptic Instagram posts this summer.

Sutter, for her park, poked fun at the speculation via Instagram on Friday, November 15, writing, “Was it a divorce/nervous breakdown/mid-life crisis/death/trial separation back in May?! Not unless that’s what you call Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, season 3!”

She went on to write: “Thankfully, none of those things are associated with my experience in filming the show, but as you get a glimpse of in the trailer, the angel on my shoulder did have to face some pretty big battles.”

Season 3 of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test premieres on Fox Wednesday, January 8, at 8 p.m. ET.