• Survivors Winner Michele Fitzgerald started dating Are you the one? Alum Devin Walker after they both competed The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras
• Fitzgerald tells PEOPLE that her connection with Walker “naturally” led to a relationship
• The reality TV star says she felt “tremendous pressure” going into season 40 after dropping out in season 39

Earlier this summer, Michele Fitzgerald confirmed that she is dating Devin Walker after the two were spotted on The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras. But she, FitzgeraldPEOPLE, and Walker didn’t get along well from the start.

“We have a somewhat turbulent past and we also have a certain past outside of the show,” said the Survivors Winner, 34, says: “I was cautious about entering into another relationship with my past on the show.”

Fitzgerald was previously with Survivors‘s Wendell Holland and Dean Kowalski and had a showmance with Callum Izzard on The challenge Season 39. When it came to starting a new relationship with a colleague, “I was a little bit reluctant,” she says of starting with Walker, 35. “But when you’re stuck in a castle and there’s a fairytale prince, you just have to.”

She feels that the connection with Walker was built during filming Battle of the eras in Vietnam.

“He’s always been someone I get along with really well,” says Fitzgerald. “In my first season, I went into the first elimination and got to choose my partner. Of all the people I could have chosen, I chose Devin. And the next season Ride or DieI was constantly trying to work with him and form alliances with him. He’s hilarious and I think it just naturally evolved that way.”

Fitzgerald made them Challenge Debut in season 37, Spies, lies and alliesbut jokes: “It’s really amazing what kind of chaos you can create in such a short time.”

In season 39, Fitzgerald had to balance her relationships with Horacio Gutiérrez Jr., Olivia Kaiser and Nurys Mateo after Kaiser, 32, cheated on Gutiérrez’s girlfriend Mateo, 29.

“I think things like that haunt you when you look back and think, ‘I should have played that differently,'” Fitzgerald says. “The game moves so fast and sometimes you don’t think about the impact of your actions when you’re in the thick of it. You’re trying to appease so many people and sometimes you lose yourself in the process. I think I’m really trying to be more aware of the chain reaction that my actions set off.”

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The reality star also had a shared past with Amanda Garcia and Laurel Stucky at the beginning of the 40th season.

“I’ve been seen as a lot of things — conniving, manipulative, malicious, whatever — and I really went through this season thinking, I’m going to let go of all my preconceived notions about myself and hopefully everyone else can be as forgiving of me,” Fitzgerald says. “Are Laurel and I going to be skipping through a meadow holding hands anytime soon? Probably not. We’re working toward that.”

Fitzgerald started season 40 strong by winning the first daily challenge alongside Gutiérrez, 28. The TV personality admits she “felt a lot of pressure” entering the season. Battle of the eras because fans thought she “went far by choice” in Season 39 because she “played with all my friends.”

“I really felt a huge amount of pressure to show that I wasn’t just playing a social game, but a physical game,” she continues. “We all have different motivations for being there, and whatever makes you light a fire under your butt is whatever motivates you to endure those conditions. It doesn’t matter what it is.”

In battle against many of the game’s greatest legends in Battle of the eras additional pressure is exerted.

“We’re playing a very different game now,” says Fitzgerald. “It’s fast and strategic and looks very different. On the show, we were often reminded of the previous generations: This is supposed to be fun. There was a lot of pressure for us to not only compete well, but also maintain the authenticity of what they thought was The challenge. Era 4, we stayed up until the end. – It was an ongoing narrative, this show is supposed to be fun. So we’re out there having fun.”

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The Challenge 40: Battle of the Eras airs Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET on MTV.