'My partner died so I'm doing Race Across The World with my ex-husband'

Reeling from their partner's sudden death, one contestant decided that was the perfect remedy to their grief - and they even enlisted the help of their ex-husband for the challenge.

The competition is returning to as five new duos embark on a 14,000 kilometres race from the Chinese village of Huanghuacheng, just north of Beijing, to the southern tip of India, in the coastal town of Kanniyakumari.

Contestants kick things off on the , armed with a tight travel budget of just over £1k - about £22 per person each day. The £20k prize is up for grabs, but they’ll need grit, resilience and a little bit of luck to get there.

Yin and Gaz may be the most unconventional pair to join the show this season. After Yin’s partner passed away suddenly in 2023, she found herself at a crossroads.

“I wasn’t in a very good place,” she remembers. “I reached out to Gaz at the end of the year because my mental health wasn’t great and he suggested I stay with him.”

When she saw the advert for the show in early 2024, she didn’t hesitate. “I need to do something with my life,” she says, “Because I can’t live in my ex-husband’s house! When Gaz asked what I was doing, I told him, ‘you’re doing it with me.’ I badgered him to fill out that application form.”

The two share a home with their adult daughter in a two-bedroom house making for a close but surprisingly functioning trio. Yin admits RATW also helped them share some hard conversations about their union, putting the past to rest.

“With every marriage, when it's falling apart, it's not the best place to be,” Yin says, “We’ve always tried to maintain our relationship for our daughter but Race gave us more of an opportunity to dig deeper, to see how we’d move forward - but we’re not getting back together!”

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Race Across the World producers have taken secrecy to a whole new level for the hit show’s latest season. Even contestants were left in the dark until the very last moment.

“They came into , they took everything and then told us we’d be going to Beijing," says Melvyn, 65, who joins the high-stakes race alongside his younger brother, Brian, 62.

“When we were travelling in China, they blacked the windows out, you couldn’t see anything,” he adds. Brian even kept his wife and children in the dark. “You can’t tell anybody because your phone’s gone,” he says.

Joining Brian, Melvyn, Yin and Gaz are mother-son team Caroline, 60, and Tom, 21; sisters, Elizabeth, 33 and Letitia, 26; and teenage couple, Fin, 18, and Sioned, 19.

Letitia and Elizabeth had a clear head start thanks to Letitia’s Mandarin skills. Despite being seasoned travellers, the sisters had never heard of RATW until Letitia’s colleagues recommended it.

“Everyone at home fell in love with it,” says Letitia. “Then I looked at Elizabeth and told her we should apply.” Elizabeth couldn’t believe their luck when they were cast: “We didn’t think we would get on it at all. It seemed like a joke.”

Sioned, a long-time fan of the show, was similarly surprised to find herself cast. Her mother originally suggested applying with her brother.

But she had other plans. “I thought it’d be good to go on with Fin to test the relationship,” she says. Fin agrees: “We’re young so we’ve never had a real challenge, it’s a good way to see if we can cope and if we can be together in the future.”

The race itself, of course, is no walk in the park. While Letitia’s Mandarin proved invaluable, Melvyn and Brian were thrown into chaos. “The language barrier was the biggest block,” Melvyn says.

Anxiety overwhelmed him as soon as the departure siren rang. “All of a sudden, you’re thinking, ‘where’s the station?’ We didn’t even know where we were,” he says.

The brothers took desperate measures to communicate with passersby. “We were drawing things and trying to draw a bus or a train,” Brian says, “People just look at you, they have no idea!” Luckily, some impromptu sightseeing while waiting for their next commute helped them decompress. “You have to find a balance,” Melvyn says.

For Caroline and Tom, preparation was everything - but even the best-laid plans were tested early on. Stranded in Beijing and lagging behind, the duo quickly realised that adaptability would be their true currency.

“I’d decided to be very frugal but we presumed our budget would deplete at an alarming rate because of that,” Caroline says, “We struggled so much in every way, and we weren’t that adaptable either.” Tom adds: “We went to the gym before the race and that wasn’t that helpful. You need mental fitness for this.”

Fin, on the other hand, encountered a health-related matter he couldn’t ignore. “I’m a very big foodie but I’m also fussy,” he says, “But I need good food because I’m diabetic. I need to make sure I have enough sugar.”

Sleep-deprivation hit Yin hard. “We had to sit on an overnight train in a really busy carriage, and that sleep deprivation kicked in,” she says, “You’re tired, you stink, you’re hungry.”

And Sioned also felt the pressure. “You put your all into it, you’re drained,” she says. “I’m an easy sleeper but you can’t ever fully switch off in Race.”

Still, through the exhaustion, anxiety and occasional chaos, each pair has come away changed. While Yin and Gaz have learned to live in the present moment, Melvyn and Brian have grown closer.

“We always got on but from a distance,” Melvyn says, “We probably get on better now than we did before. We understand one another a little better.”

And Caroline, who wasn’t as familiar with backpacking as Tom, now has a new appreciation for her son’s adventurous spirit. “As long as your basic needs are met, it can be fun,” she says, “I enjoyed the change, knowing it was short-lived.”

Whether it’s deepening family bonds, reigniting old friendships or testing romantic ties, Race Across the World continues to push its contestants to their emotional and physical limits - and this season may just be the most dramatic journey yet.

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