Lance Armstrong threatened to leave Stars on Mars when his comments on trans athletes enraged his co-stars.
The 51-year-old former pro cyclist joins Modern Family actress Ariel Winter and Olympic figure skater Adam Rippon on the celebrity reality show, where they all live together and complete activities before voting each other out.
However, after living in such tight quarters, it’s no wonder that they’re all getting on each other’s nerves, which leads Lance to unexpectedly offer to resign.
‘I’m not living in this hab another day with certain people,’ he seethd, after an argument on trans athletes in sports.
Lance had explained to his co-stars, including Ariel: ‘Let me make this simple, I don’t need the drama.
‘I busted my a** for nine days, I’m going to bust my a** on the tenth day, and I’m going to auto select myself to leave.’
He went on: ‘You have all these new great people, it’s going to be fine.’
Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Porsha Williams wasn’t too happy about his decision, saying that ‘people giving up’ was ‘making the experience not fun’.
‘Guess what, I’m not living in this hab another day with certain people,’ Lance fumed in response.
This follows criticism of his remarks on transgender athletes competing in sports.
Lance told the group: ‘I said, ”Listen one of my most key employees, they’re transitioning.”
‘I have no problem with that, I love it, let’s go.
‘I said to the guy on the podcast, “This is real simple, you want to transition? Let’s do it.
‘”You have your own category. We’re going to have a whole new division. We’ll celebrate you just like we celebrate everybody else. Let’s go.”
‘What’s unfair about that?’
‘To me, I think we just have to care about if you other-ize people it’s not good for their mental health,’ replied singer Tinashe, explaining she meant ‘excluding people from the same spaces and places that everyone else is.’
‘We’re not excluding anybody,’ Lance added, insisting he’s ‘the most liberal person’.
The other contenders, though, were not as convinced.
‘You are ostracizing the people who don’t fit in the categories,’ Ariel, 25, said.
Lance later said in a confessional: ‘You might not agree with me and I might not agree with you but that’s okay, right?’
‘And there’s a lot of sensitive subjects and it’s not just trans issues and trans in sports.
‘It could be abortion, it could be war, it could be gun violence, it could be politics, anything, global warming.
‘But if you can’t feel safe to enter into the conversation, then we’re all lost.’
Ariel and Adam later spoke about Lance’s comments, where the latter called them ‘so disheartening’.
He added in a confessional: ‘Those comments here in this experiment have completely shifted the energy and have completely shifted the focus, and I will not ever forget them.’
‘That’s not the conversation you need to be having in here,’ Porscha told Lance, according to MailOnline.
‘You are not at your kitchen table.’
He added in a confessional: ‘My view is my view until proven differently.
‘If this discussion gets to a place where a room of the brightest scientist and medical experts and everything else can say 100% without a doubt that it’s a level playing field for this issue, then we’re fine.’
However, Ariel was shocked that Lance even brought up the subject on the TV show, telling him she ‘doesn’t understand why’.
He admitted: ‘I p***ed off way too many people.’
According to reports, Lance changed his mind about quitting the next day, saying: ‘Guys, I’ve decided to change my mind.
‘I had a good sleep and a good workout so I decided to not tap out.’
Stars on Mars airs in America on Fox.
