'The Amazing Race's' Amber and Vinny on their televised engagement and being 'the villain'

The Proposal [Music] Amber and Vinnie you couldn't quite make it to the final leg on The Amazing Race but I think Vinnie you did your best to make up for that by giving Amber another prize on the mat so Amber I'm going to talk to you first how shocked Were You by that Amazing Race proposal I mean I think you could see it on my face like my Aunt messaged me last night she was like I could tell how surprised you were by like your jaw dropping cuz I was literally like and then I was like no no and then I'm like wait I didn't mean no like no The Proposal I'm just like in shock and then like when it was happening I just I think I blacked out because I don't really remember what you said all I saw was you getting on one knee and like I saw Darren and Jen with their personal cameras out and I was just like what is going on like y'all are being so weird right now and I'm like something's happening and I felt it and then you got down on one knee and I was just like ah makes sense well that was a pretty big swing The Journey of emotions going from elimination to engagement so Vinnie when did you know you wanted to do that like did you have the ring the whole race just waiting for for that final match or were you just waiting to see like do I want to get married on this race gosh as as we getting through we're all just having second second guesses now I'm totally joking um U for me actually so our journey was with the whole engagement was a long time ago because we were supposed to be uh we applying to season 34 then we didn't get on we got we were reass invited to go apply to 35 and then 35 was switched to 36 so I mean this journey for me once I knew I was on the race and I don't know if it was even about the race but I I went up to my mom and I said Mom I think that uh I I am going to propose to this woman I I I'm just learning how much I love her and all the things that she provides uh for us as a team um and so she goes upstairs and this was like in early 2022 she goes upstairs and she comes down and she comes down with a diamond ring like a whole different ring than she has right now and she hands this to me and she says this is L ring which is my grandma and so this diamond ring was passed down from generation from my grandma to my mom and now my mom to her um and so she said I want you to repurpose this ring and put that on um Amber's Amber's and that was her way of really showing her acceptance to the family and that felt like so comforting um and so to answer your question this I this whole journey was was so so long ago and I just told myself some point on this race I'm gonna get down on one knee I don't know when because there Denton there was this time in Argentina where everybody was on the mat and feel and I'm I'm feeling like oh my gosh this might be it and I felt it in my heart I was like this might be the one this might be the moment and then Phil looks at me and he raises his eyebrows and he's like does anyone have anything else to say and I was like and I just I was like stuck because Phil knew that he was gonna propose at some point and the whole production team knew right because they had to help him orchestrate because we only had one backpack and so we when we were like getting our things checked they had to separate me from him to get our things checked right so when we're getting a check-in and doing the onboarding I mean they're they're taking apart your backpack looking at every little thing that's in there to make sure it's all approved items and I was like guys you can't you can't do that while we're together so they had I had to talk them through and they had created a whole production strategy to be able oh my God can I tell you do we have a second to tell you a story what happened right before I proposed oh yeah so then if you remember we have to at the very end right before the mat we got across this water channel on the kayak and you saw ra and Leticia flip over right and so right before that for us they're like Vinnie we need your backpack I need your I need your napsack and your backpack and I was like holding on to this thing like for dear life I was like no you can't have and I mean at that day I told myself we are we I am going to ask her to marry me regardless of what happens today because I said said to myself I don't want it to be if we make it to the top three I don't want it to be uh overshadowed or a part of the energy of the top three I wanted it before the top three so I could really just make her feel all the special feels and and and really just kind of do do it justice and so I told everybody she went to the bathroom and I told everybody the cast the production team and I just reminded them like guys today I'm doing it it's happening and so you saying like this screamed and vinc was like sh she's in the bathroom yeah so I get this they're trying to take this backpack and I'm literally holding on they ultimately take it from me because we can't go across the waters we get across and I'm thinking like oh my God what am I gonna do like do I pick up a piece of a string or try to make something up and I get to the mat and I just blurt out like without knowing and try to slide it in Phil I don't know I I was like Phil I need my backpack and he like picked it up like a smooth criminal and he just made it seem like it was a production issue mics were messed up we got to do a retake he handed Amber a coconut drink and it was like go take a break real quick he slides the ring in my hand I'm just like and we go back to the mat and I'm like I can't believe he just did that without Amber knowing you know what I thought I thought that I know they said there was going to be no non- elimination rounds but for some reason something in me just felt like are we like not eliminated like is some something is being really like I don't know I was like catching on to something but it wasn't like that you were going to propose to me leg huh like you were gonna hit another Mega leg or something just like something doesn't feel right like feels being kind of weird but he's also like making it seem like there's some audio issues and I had no idea it was like a proposal so yeah you still surprised me so to be able to like watch it last night like just as she did I blacked about myself like I don't remember what I said cuz it was I was just so anxious I had so many feelings and honestly I think that contributed to my inabilities to that day we struggled with the drinks they didn't show that but we struggled with the drinks and I I swear I was pouring whiskey in every drink it was like dude that's we need tequila what are you doing he was not thinking at all and it makes sense he had a proposal in his head not making drinks or finishing this detour I don't know like oh you were just off I was so off how far The Final Leg behind were you when you got to the the Madden fourth place I mean did you know you were done like and and do you know how far back you were so we actually okay so I don't know why I thought this but there was an extra Doom buggy right with a clue right and we were like why are there two Doom buggies like one for us and then an extra one and I was in my head I was like oh my gosh did letisia not do the roadblock that's weird did she like take the penalty or something knew she had do everything we never saw her we never saw her doing the standup sailing uh Challenge and so that's what I was thinking and I was like there's still hope there's still H and then I see Ricky and Cesar at the pit stop and I'm just like well we're either last or rod and Laticia aren't here I don't know and to answer your question I think how long did it take to get across the water Channel because we we got into our boat we were seeing them getting almost about to get off we were we were really close yeah I would say maybe five minutes yeah five 10 minutes maybe letia was the MVP of that leg I mean who knew she could who knew she could kill wind surfing like that and and poor drinks I mean it that was her Shining Moment of the Thoughts on Ricky and Cesar Season what were your thoughts on Ricky and Caesar winning and having to deal with them all season long was it just like one eye roll after another ey roll like how do we get rid of these guys cuz you thought you you had that moment in the car where you're like the dragon can be slayed you thought you could maybe get them but I mean they were just Unstoppable they really were Unstoppable and I think that's why we kind of had this little not we didn't have a formal alliance with Juan and Shane and Ron latisa but there was moments where we were like guys we we gotta like come together we gotta do something to get Ricky and Cesar out because if we get to the top three like I don't know CU we really wanted to test them um in a different position than the front of the p P you know that's a whole different energy there's a whole different level of stress and pressure it's very different than being in the back of the pack and so we wanted to test them and see hey can we work together as a team to maybe knock them down and be able to start maybe a cascading effect where yeah you got to fight when you're in the back you're tooth and nail for every little minute but when you're in the front you got those 15 minutes it's so hard to catch up but on top of that like Ricky and Cesar are just impeccable Racers just their relationship their communication their abilities to calm their mind during those high levels of stress were just in my opinion possibly unmatched in the history of The Amazing Race yeah I don't I've never seen anybody race as well as them I don't think and if they get as back on an Allstar season watch out yeah like I I put them up with the Cowboys Justin and Diana Justin Diana like some of the best Racers of all time they they belong to be up there yeah how hard was it to watch back all of the fighting the How hard was it to watch back arguments I mean you you guys have gotten some heat online which I hope you can like get out of your minds and not pay attention to because no one wants people judging them from a TV they don't know what's going on in real life but they show the fighting so what's that edit like and and seeing that and you're like oh no especially because it was so long ago um I think it it was just hard for me to like I know that we have struggles and I know we have disagreements but just to see it Con like a constant fighting I just felt like it was not like that when we actually raced I didn't feel like we were constantly fighting um so I did feel like they only put in the the fighting and not they left out some of the other like happy moments good stuff um but it's okay I think they had a story and they told the story they wanted to tell and yeah okay when you're oh go ahead for me it was uh we talked about this this morning it it was actually such a blessing right like yeah we all have struggles the Rel the real the realities of relationship and the struggle of love and life together it's it's one of the hardest things you'll ever do and anyone who's been in a relationship long enough will know that that is the truths of it but in that regardless of that going through that experience like I I wouldn't take it back I wouldn't take it back because it really opened up our eyes to a whole different reality that we didn't see it's like hearing yourself on the pH um on the phone for the first time you don't really you're like oh gosh is that is that how I sound you know and you're just like is okay so now I'm understanding some of these past experiences that we've had where we clashed I can understand now why because you get to see yourself in third person yes and so then there's just a whole different level of uh selfawareness and I feel that we personally I've been so enlightened to see myself struggle like that and how we navigate it organically I am extremely proud of our authenticity like we told ourselves we do not want to act like cameras are on us we want the world to see and normalize what true relationship looks like um but it was such a cool experience to see myself I mean I didn't enjoy being like the villain of the season right but at the same time it was kind of cool I've never been a villain before so I was like oh so this is how Joker feels when everyone hates them you know well you guys made it all the way up until the the last leg Whats your favorite country which was in Philadelphia so you can go to Philadelphia anytime you want so you got to travel all over to all these different places did you feel like you got to like take anything in or is there any place you visited where you're like we need to go back there and explore more because I don't is it just is it too stressful to appreciate the situation you're in I think people ask me what my favorite country was and I feel like col I say Colombia because it was the only country where we could fully be present in two situations it was the paragliding where we we could not race we literally just had to sit like sit there and enjoy take it all in for a long period of time and then that boat ride the boat ride uh El guap um after we did the after we climbed the rock um we were on the boat and that was really cool too to kind of take in the surroundings but every other beyond that you're thinking of the next moment you really can't be present so to answer your question every country we we're very well traveled we're going to go back to every country and really really get to experience all of it the way that we would want to curate our life not the way that uh the Amazing Race and the pressure cooker of all that stress I feel like d we lost like five years of our life I've grown so many gray hairs because of it it's like so stressful and very very hard and if anyone is ever going to be on the race I would say slow your mind down try to be present as much as you can because it's going to be damn near impossible to do well congratulations on uh making it to the final episode and almost that final leg and good luck with everything moving forward thanks for chatting with gold Derby today thank you meet have a good day [Music]