Brother and sister Betty and James have developed a touching bond throughout BBC One’s Race Across the World – but they weren’t always as close as they appear on-screen
Race Across the World fans have fallen in love with sibling duo Betty and James over the last seven weeks.
The brother and sister team have grown closer throughout the BBC competition and shared a touching moment last week when they had a heart-to-heart about Betty’s rare health condition. The 25-year-old social media manager revealed that she was diagnosed with Mayer Rokitansky Küster Hauser syndrome (MRKH) at 16 after discovering she didn’t have a uterus, womb and only one kidney.
After their conversation, James, 21, broke down in tears and begged the film crew: “Can someone just come and hug me please?” Tearful fans online called it the “most moving TV moment of the year”. But the emotional scene was actually a first for Betty and James, who admitted they weren’t very close before the race started.
In an interview with the BBC ahead of the series, Betty said she wanted to sign up for the race after watching it at home with their parents. She said: “It’s a TV programme that we watch as a family and I think during series one and two we were sat there like, ‘We could definitely do this’. It got to the last week we could apply, and we thought, ‘Let’s just go for it’.”
Before Race Across the World, the pair had enjoyed family holidays together – also with their sibling Matt, who lives in Canada – and Betty had been backpacking around Central America and travelled to India with her dad and grandad. James, on the other hand, was more of a partygoer and had been to Magaluf with his mates.
They candidly shared that they wouldn’t have been each other’s first choice of travel buddy, with Betty admitting: “I got the application thing going and James got dragged along for the journey.” To which he explained: “You said a few times, there’s other people you should’ve taken – but they’re not here or couldn’t do it.”
Chatting about their mum and dad’s opinion, Betty said: “They said they think it will make us stronger. We’re not super close as brother and sister.” But despite being barely in touch as adults, the pair have barely disagreed in the race – and maybe that’s because they trust everything will work out in the end.
Betty told the publication: “Coming from Yorkshire, naturally our motto is ‘It’ll be reet’. Our nanna has a motto she says for everything and especially if there are any challenges in the family, she always says ‘Onwards and upwards’, no matter what it is. It could be something that we think is the worst thing ever and she’ll just go ‘Onwards and upwards’.”
- Watch Race Across the World on BBC One at 9pm tonight.
