My inbox has been full of your questions about the show, Naked Alone and Racing to get Home, so I've taken the time to gather up your curiosity and pop it all in one place. This post contains spoilers so if you haven't watched the show yet don't read on! Lucky for you it's still available to watch online here.
Q. How did you feel when you first got naked after meeting your fellow contestants in Yorkshire?
A. If you’ve seen the show you will know that I was the first to get my kit off and I was a bit shaky. I was feeling nervous. Before getting my kit off I wasn’t worried about being naked so much, but I was worried about not liking my partner and I was worried about someone chickening out. If someone had decided they couldn’t do it the whole thing would have been called off. Once I'd committed I was fully in and I would have been devastated if I'd made it up the hill and was told to turn back and go home.
Q. Did you find yourself staring at other peoples bits?
A. Yeah to start with anyway. It's just natural. Its not something you see every day so yep I have to admit I was staring at everyone's bits at the start. I think we all were. It's not every day you see naked people stood on a summit.
Q. How did you feel when you first had to face someone to ask directions, or the farmer you asked to use of his barn?
A. I think I was curious more than anything... We spent the first couple of hours wandering in the middle of nowhere so we didn’t see anyone(!) but when we finally did bump into people I was just curious as to how they would react. Would they be embarrassed, would they find it funny, would they be insulted?
We were exhausted and desperate by the time we found the farmer. I was just hoping he was going to let us use his barn.
Q. Did you get cold whilst out walking naked?
A. The show was filmed in August and we were lucky with the weather. The week prior had been horrendous so I'm truly grateful for the conditions. I didn't get cold walking but Mike did. He has literally no body fat. I was so cold in that barn though.
Q. I thought I saw some chemistry between you and your partner by the end of the show. Did anything happen when the cameras weren't rolling?
A. Haha! No nothing happened between any of us. We were all just focused on surviving (and Ryan on winning). Me and Mike are friends though, he's stayed at mine in Cardiff and I've stayed at his in London. Stripping naked to do a survival hike together is a good way to bond quickly with someone, though perhaps not an ideal first date idea.
Q. You said you were very cold that first night. Were the two of you tempted to cuddle up?
A. We slept right next to each other. No cuddling though, I think that would have been a bit awkward. We were grubby, just met, and sweaty from hiking.
Q. Did you encounter many people whilst you were walking on the moors?
A. So so many! It was the summer holidays!
Q. When did you get so comfortable being naked and what do you like most about yourself?
A. I wouldn't say I am comfortable naked… well maybe I am now. I think the more you do it the easier it becomes. The same with anything that makes you uncomfortable. What I like the most about myself has nothing to do with my appearance. I love my ability to push myself to do things even when they feel scary, even when I'm not confident or comfortable.
Q. How did you feel watching it back?
A. It was super fun. Usually I hate watching myself back. In the past when I have done interviews I would cringe watching them back and get awfully uncomfortable but I loved watching this! I was excited to see Chrissie and Ryan's journey and I was surrounded by incredible, supportive people. We all went to a screening party at Mikes place. His home is lush! He got the projector out so we were able to see all our bits on the big screen. We did a live Q&A with the people who attended the party and we had an incredible night. Probably my favourite night ever!
Q. Do you feel famous now?
A. Haha, no. Ryan has been recognised from the show in Lincoln where he lives but it hasn’t happened to me here in Cardiff. Chrissie is already famous, she's an actress/ model. I was at the airing party and people didn’t even recognise me there! Some guy asked me who I was during the second break… I was I'm Laura… you know, Mikes partner on the show you're watching on that massive screen right now. This was also after the live Q&A we did in the room 45 minutes prior to this moment.
Q. What was your biggest lesson you learned from the show?
A. Mike and I are very different people and we both had different ideas. Sometimes he had Ideas that I didn’t necessarily think would work, but I listened, we tried things his way and it did work out. Patients and resisting the urge to always be in control.
Actually the biggest thing I learned about myself is how resilient I am. If you had asked me if I could spend a night on the floor in a barn with nothing but a plastic sheet I would have said hell no! But to my surprise I did it! With a naked stranger I'd met just hours before.
Also I loved being on TV. I didn’t expect to feel that way but I's love to do more TV stuff.
Q. What was it like with the camera crew following you all the time? Were they nice?
A. They were amazing! Yes, it was hard hiking naked, but, they had to hike with cameras and they were walking backwards too. The whole crew were incredible and so bloody lovely.
Q. Did they sleep in their own accommodation?
A. There is a day crew and night crew so the night crew were awake working nights.
Q. The scenes of you talking in the studio. How was that? Was it after the challenge?
A. That was before we started and that was the most awkward part I think, because I was the only one there that was naked...
Q. How did your family react to you being on the show?
A. I didn't tell my Dad till I was on my way to the unknown location. I was worried he would try and talk me out of it so I chose not to tell him till there was nothing he could do about it. I also didn’t tell his side of the family but much to my surprise they watched it and enjoyed the show. I was worried about their judgment but turns out I had nothing to worry about. My Mum was supportive as always. She supports every thing I do. I am very lucky and grateful for our relationship. My cousins on my mums side think I'm insane… they have watched the show and enjoyed it though.
Q. Were you worried about getting arrested?
A. Nope. You can't get arrested for just being naked. I've written about this in the intro to my naked bike ride post so I wont bore you with all the details here.
Q. What did you find most surprising?
A. Probably how comfortable I got being naked. You kind of just forget after a while, well… at least until you walk in the long grass and it tickles you below.
Q. Were you happy to get your clothes back at the end of the show?
A. I was happy to get out of that itchy hessian sack! It was soooooo uncomfortable.
Q. Were you able to watch it before it was on TV? Did you just see the final cut?
A. Nope we watched it when it aired. It was such a weird month in the run up to it because we had just done this incredible thing and we couldn’t tell anyone about it!
Q. How much contact with the show did you have prior to filming?
A. None apart from the interview. We weren't even given a rough location to make sure we couldn’t cheat and look up routes before hand.
Q. Have your friends watched it? Have your parents watched it? If so, how did that feel? How do they feel?
A. Lots of my friends have watched it. My Mum watched it. My Dad didn't. I didn’t even tell my Dads side of the family because I thought they would just be embarrassed by me but I had a lovely message from them after the show saying they watched it. Everyone was super proud of me. I didn’t even think others seeing me naked was weird, I don’t think I thought about it at all. I actually invited some of the people I work with to come watch it with me when it aired it wasn’t till after I asked then that I realised it may seem like I asked them to come watch a naked video of me… but if you’ve seen the show you will know its not like that at all and its actually just funny TV. You get over the nudity pretty quickly.
Q. What comments have you had online and how do you react?
A. Ha, I've had so many comments. More good than bad actually. I laugh because some of the bad ones are soooo bad! I expected to get lots of comments about the size of my body. My weight is something I feel a little insecure about but, to my surprise, no one commented on that. Not. One. Person! One person did say after reading the Wales online article that they could have chosen someone with a better body.
Q. Have you got any advice for anyone else that experiences negativity online?
A. Yes! Read my previous blog post, I got naked on TV and I'm triumphing over the trolls, for the details.
Q. Any regrets?
A. No I really don’t have any egrets. The whole experience was incredible!
Q. Would you do it again?
A. 100% yes! In a heartbeat. I had so much fun. It was a real test of character. Not only was I hiking for 3 days… naked but I also had to spend 3 days with a complete stranger.
Q. How did you find out about the show and where can I apply?
A. I was in a Wales Online article about the world naked bike ride and someone from casting (the people who make sure they get the right people for the shows) spotted the article and contacted me through my blog. They didn’t offer me a place on show but they asked me to apply. It was all done fairly and we went through an interview process. I had to do a fun naked video of doing stuff around the house for my application. This one was just a Pilot meaning if the show does well they will turn it into a series! We were basically the guinea pigs. That’s why I had my reservations about going on the show. They had no episodes to compare it to I didn’t know if they were going to make me look stupid or not!
Did I answer your question? 🙋♂️ 🙋♀️ If not drop me a comment and if it's worthy will add it to this post.