Trista Sutter says fellow “Bachelorette ”alum Ali Fedotowsky 'took very good care of me' on “Special Forces”

Original Bachelorette Trista Sutter, who captured hearts (and the final rose?) after her run on The Bachelor, has tackled her share of reality TV, including Dancing With the Stars. But her latest gig, Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, proved to be the most intense by far.

"The hardest thing I've ever done in my life," Sutter tells Entertainment Weekly of the Fox reality series that challenges celebrities to complete the same mentally and physically taxing exercises that are used in actual Special Forces training.

Related: See every celebrity who's failed Special Forces: World's Toughest Test season 3 so far

She was grateful that Ali Fedotowsky, another former Bachelorette star, was cast alongside her and the other competitors, which included actors, pro athletes, and even Olympians.

“It was nice to have a friendly face," Sutter says. "She actually took very good care of me when I came back from having hypothermia."

Sutter competed on the first season of The Bachelor in 2002 and went on to become the very first star of its spinoff, The Bachelorette. Fedotowsky competed on The Bachelor in 2010 before being picked to star in her own season. Time-wise, their seasons were far apart, but both are part of the famously close Bachelor Nation and were well acquainted before Special Forces.

Sutter ran into trouble on the reality competition several times before she bowed out, despite giving it her all. She went to the medic after becoming hypothermic during an exercise involving freezing cold water and sandbags on the beach. Though she had struggled with earlier challenges, this was it for her.

"I went to talk to the medic. He cleared me, said that my temperature was okay. It had been raised, I just needed to get some food and go in the warming room. So I went in there. I sat down facing a wall," Sutter says. "There were a bunch of people in there. I just wanted to focus — and I was still kind of lethargic at this point — and get warm. And [Ali] noticed that I was sitting there by myself and came over and sat with me and talked me through it and got me food and stayed with me. So that was really nice to have her there."

Related: See every celebrity who's failed Special Forces: World's Toughest Test season 3 so far

Fedotowsky was "really the only friendly face that I had," Sutter says. "Not that everybody wasn't friendly, but I knew her prior. I had [met] Denise [Richards] years before that, but it was just at an event quickly, and I don't think I knew anybody else. So it was really nice to have somebody there who I was friends with prior."

Sutter, who is married to Ryan Sutter, the man she ultimately chose on The Bachelorette, spoke admirably about the way Fedotowsky prepared for the show, with two or three workouts a day. (Fedotowsky was forced to medically withdraw after an injury.)

Her friend did not do the same.

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"I was asked in February, three months before we started taping, and in the middle of that, they weren't going to clear me medically," Sutter says. "They were concerned because I've had back surgery, I had a lumbar fusion."

The recruits, as they're known, were pushed off a boat at the start of their time with the show.

Not so much for Sutter, who wasn't too worried. She wanted the chance to show her husband and their kids, who are about to leave home soon, that she could handle the challenges. The trained dancer also wanted to show herself she could do it.

"During that time that it was up in the air, whether or not I was going to be able to get medically cleared, I'm so superstitious that I stopped working out," Sutter explains. "I stopped doing the runs ... and carrying the weighted vest and all of that while I was running, because I was superstitious that if I worked out, then they wouldn't ask me. So freaking stupid. I mean, so stupid. I had three months. That's a really good time, great amount of time to actually train. And had I really focused and worked out every day, I feel like maybe that also would've changed things. But listen, the what ifs will break you down and tear you apart. I am proud of what I accomplished on the show."

Related: Denise Richards gives an update on her breast implant injuries from Special Forces

In all, five more contestants departed the show on Wednesday's episode while eight remain.

Sutter is at peace with her decision to turn in her armband, knowing she pushed herself to the absolute limit—a sentiment echoed by her instructors.

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