Go team!

After 14 difficult, once-in-a-lifetime legs, the Amazing Race: Celebrity Edition has come to an end. And despite the final three teams putting up a pretty solid fight throughout the last leg, it was actor brothers and best friends Stephen and Bernard Curry who won a whopping $100,000 for their chosen charity, One in Five.

One in Five is a mental health charity dedicated to finding better treatments for mental illness through medical research. For Steve and Bernie, who have been ambassadors for the charity since its inception, winning a big chunk of cash for such a good cause was an absolute honour.

“I cannot tell you how chuffed we are,” Stephen tells TV WEEK.

“It’s a relief to be able to actually tell people now because we obviously knew the outcome and it was hard not to tell anyone,” Bernard adds.

“And now, the charity are able to get the message out there. We’re feeling relief, elation, joy. There’s no real words that can describe what a feeling it is to achieve this for One in Five.”

In the finale, Stephen and Bernard were up against engaged couple Georgie Tunny and Rob Mills and Below Deck star Aesha Scott and her fiancé Scott.

The teams were taken to the active volcano of Mount Merapi in Indonesia. The first challenge saw them use all their wits to outmanoeuvre a pair of traditional buffalo in knee-deep mud pits.

Thanks to some clever-thinking, it was Steve and Bernie who kicked off the leg in first place. But while they started in first place, they struggled to maintain the lead. Especially with Steve’s ongoing knee injury.

“We’ve got a WhatsApp group with all of the other contestants, and they were saying that they should have made a drinking game for whenever Steve mentioned his knee,” joked Bernard.

“We’d all be plastered.”
The top three teams put in such a great effort during the last leg. (Image: Supplied)
As the episode progressed, Aesha and Scott were quickly on their heels as they headed to the next challenge, where the teams had to split volcanic rocks using ancient techniques. Next, the teams had to swap their construction skills for dance skills to learn a complex hand dance and perform it in complete synchronicity. For Steve and his painful knee, the kneeling position of the dance proved to be incredibly difficult but, like a true champion, he persevered.

“Dancing was our kryptonite,” Steve admitted.

“And our sister, Margie, is a trained ballerina. We didn’t get that.”

“No twinkle toes over here,” Bernie chimed in.

“But we still gave it a swing. Even if things are out of our wheelhouse, we wanted to go in and show our kids that you have a swing regardless of the odds.”

While dancing was admittedly not their forte, both Steve and Bernie were pleasantly surprised to discover Bernie’s secret talent in eating disgusting things.

“It turns out that eating things was my superpower,” Bernie admits. “You just don’t realise you have a superpower until you’re kind of in the situation and you’re forced to do it. I can just put things in my gullet and swallow.”

After displaying such a solid-stomach on The Amazing Race: Celebrity Edition, it’ll only be a matter of time until I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here starts knocking on Bernie’s door. However, while Bernie says he’s up for the challenge of another reality show, Steve says he’s done.

“Him yes, me no,” Steve says, pointing to his brother. “He’s a beast. He’s got all these skills. Physicality, the drive.”

Although I’m A Celeb comes to mind, it’s Survivor that really piques Bernie’s intertest.

“Survivor is my bucket list,” he shared.

“Before I get too old, I want to have a crack at Survivor.”
It was all stations go for the teams to reach Beau first at the final check point. (Image: Supplied)
While you might think that two brothers put in difficult, high-stress challenges might come to blows, Steve and Bernard say it couldn’t have been more opposite. The pair are proud to say they had no fights or tiffs, but did admit that things got emotional during some trickier parts of the race.

“I broke down once to him in Uzbekistan and said, ‘you can’t ever make me do something like this again’. I was just so done. I was just so spent. I miss my kids too much. I miss my wife too much. I just failed in what seemed to be the simplest challenge, and I absolutely was a blubbering mess to him,” Steve revealed.

“But no, there was no fights. It just reminded us how lucky we are. We we’re raised in a really close family and raised to just to be as supportive as you can and and to enjoy each other’s company.”
Dream team!!!! (Image: Supplied)
According to the dynamic duo, there was so little drama and such strong camaraderie amongst the entire cast that the producers had to keep reminding them not to help each other, or act in a more competitive manner.

“We all got along like a house on fire,” Steve says.

“We just loved everyone,” Bernie adds. “The thing is, the structure of the game is that you’re racing during the day and when you get back, you go to the hotel and you’re not allowed to leave the hotel. So we’re all sort of hanging out with each other, telling stories and getting to know each other.

“Everyone just got along so well.”