The Amazing Race completed another leg and took out another former Big Brother Houseguest, and they're out of the running for that million-dollar prize. Rubina and Kristine Bernabe weren't too upset, however, because they got to live a lifelong dream, and even made a family member jealous by competing on the CBS reality series.
The duo, fresh on the heels of their elimination episode airing on the 2025 TV schedule, spoke to Parade about coming on the show after decades of watching the show with their late mother. Rubina talked about how grateful she was to be invited to play, but said one family member was miffed she didn't ask him to play instead of her sister:
And there was no other person I could have done it with. My dad was a little bit butthurt that it was not him. But we would have been cut before Jack and Enzo if it was him. It was always going to be my sister. It was always going to be Kristine.
I love how Rubina shot her dad down, knowing he wouldn't be able to keep up with the pace needed to win The Amazing Race. I can't really say she was wrong, as Enzo Palumbo and his brother were the first duo out, and Chelsie and Jack Baham have only barely scraped by in some episodes due to his knee issues. This is not a game that's easy for the older crowd, as evidenced by the betting odds to win for some of the teams with older people.
Rubina was thrilled to receive the call to be on The Amazing Race, but admitted that she had dropped hints whenever possible while in Big Brother Season 25. While others might have been pleading with the live feed viewers watching nonstop with their Paramount+ subscription for AFP votes, she was talking about playing TAR:
But I will say in the house I kind of dropped a little hints like, 'Hey, would love to do Amazing Race, wanna do Amazing Race, Amazing Race is the dream.' And honestly, it really was always a dream. We grew up watching this show with our mom, who is no longer with us. So to be able to actually do it and live out this dream and be the first all-Filipino female team to be on the US Amazing Race is a dream come true.
It's a crowning achievement for the sisters, who joked that their "trauma bonding" in childhood made them a great team in stressful moments during The Amazing Race. Rubina and Kristine Bernabe's mother suffered a brain aneurysm and stroke, and remained in a vegetative state for a decade until she passed in 2018 (via VoyageLA).
The sisters did what they could to hold on, but ultimately fell due to teams in this season of The Amazing Race adopting a strategy of maintaining alliances. This could've benefited Rubina, considering her former boyfriend, Tucker Des Lauriers, was on an opposing team. They were still dating during filming, but he didn't seem interested in teaming up. They've since broken up, though there's no evidence to suggest this experience on the show played a factor.
The Amazing Race is rolling on without the Bernabe sisters, and thus far, it's looking like there are some clear favorites to win it all. If I were a betting man, I'd be putting my money on Jag and Jas Bains or Tucker and Eric Des Lauriers to win it all. Everyone else is finishing well after them, and I find it hard to believe that won't be the case the rest of the season.
We'll see how it plays out as new episodes of The Amazing Race air on CBS on Wednesdays beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET. I'm ready to see who will leave in the next leg, as we're really starting to whittle down the remaining teams left.
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