Quote from Oladosun Joshua Segun on November 21, 2025, 8:12 AM

Andrew East and Shawn Johnson were hesitant to step into unknown territory. The Olympic gymnast and former NFL player really declined to participate in season four of FOX's Special Forces: World's Toughest Test until they were certain that it would not cause any problems for their six-year-old daughter Drew, their four-year-old son Jett, and their twenty-three-month-old baby Bear.

“I had a meeting with a child psychiatrist before we signed on,” Shawn told news organizations exclusively, “because I was so scared I was going to scar my kids.”

The 33-year-old continued by saying that she and 34-year-old Andrew "had a lot of conversations" with their kids about their ten-day filming trip, making sure the three were too busy to truly miss them.

“We set up so much stuff for them to do,” Shawn clarified, “to be distracted and to build memories of their own.”

Their children "had so much stuff going on" and enjoyed time with their grandparents and relatives.

“They had a blast,” Shawn went on. “They were ready for us to come home, but they truly had good memories from us being gone instead of bad.”

While Drew, Jett, and Barrett had a great time over those ten days, their parents' experience was a little less enjoyable because Shawn and Andrew were put through the ringer on the reality show.

“You just go completely mentally numb,” Shawn acknowledged her involvement in the show, “to where you're just like a human shell.”

Andrew continued, “Honestly, I would recommend the whole show until the last day. Honestly, it ruined everything. It was so brutal.”

“It went from something we are very used to, which is the physical pain, to, ‘Whoa, what is this?’” said Shawn, who agreed that the game's conclusion fundamentally changed it even though she disagreed that it wrecked everything.

The gold medalist did experience “lucky” she reached the end, saying, “Crossing that finish line took all of those bad memories of everything you just went through, and made it have a purpose to it.”

The former Washington Commanders long snapper was thankful to have spent time with his significant other, despite Andrew's somewhat different experience.

“I am so incredibly proud of and impressed by Shawn,” he gushed. “It was so amazing to watch her do her thing, and the fact that we're able to experience all of that together.”

Shawn expressed her admiration for her hubby by stating she “won the jackpot for a human being” since Andrew was “the rock for everyone.”

“You're literally the people's golden retriever,” she went on. “Every single person who was feeling vulnerable or scared or nervous leaned on him. Kody [Brown] would get vulnerable and be like, ‘Where's Andrew? I need Andrew.’”

There were other people attempting to pass the most difficult tests besides Shawn and Andrew.