'The Challenge' 's Theo Campbell Had to Sit Out Upcoming Season After Being Blinded by Champagne Cork

Theo Campbell was forced to sit out The Challenge‘s upcoming season 35 after a champagne cork incident left him partially blind in his right eye.

Speaking with PeopleTV’s Reality Check, the 28-year-old reality star revealed that doctors advised him to quit the series until he was given a clean bill of health, despite his excitement to compete on the show.

“I was ready! I was ready to go on this season, now,” the War of the Worlds 2 competitor said, explaining that he only found out his right eye, which has stitches in it, wasn’t healed enough to return to the show days before he would have left to begin filming the next season.

“You know, I got the call-up, I signed all the contracts and everything, and it was last minute,” he recalled. “The doctor said it wasn’t a good idea. They told me not even a week before that I’m not able to go on.”

Still, Campbell said, his injury won’t stop him from continuing to compete in the future.

“I was ready!” he noted. “So once I’m all good, I’ll be back.”

While on the Reality Check, Campbell also discussed his injury, explaining to the hosts that although his vision in that eye is now blurry from the accident, he is hopeful that it will improve.

“You know, it was a very, very unfortunate situation,” Campbell explained, adding that he was “out partying” when a girl popped a bottle of champagne — to disastrous results.

“Must’ve been her first time,” Campbell said, because, “she popped it in my direction rather than up in the air. So, silly mistake from her, one in a million shot, really. She got me directly in the eye.”

Though Campbell has lost most of his vision in the eye, he said that it could have been much worse.

“I thought I was going to lose my eye at first, it’s what the doctor said because it’s a pretty bad trauma to the eye,” he explained. “But, you know, he saved it, and I’m only partially blind in the eye. Everything’s just a blur.”

Despite the diagnosis, the reality star remained hopeful that he could gain some of his vision back.

“You never know, with good recovery, lots of patience, I might be able to see normally one day,” he said. “But just patience until then.”

As for the woman who sent the cork flying into his face, Campbell said he never learned who she was.

“I didn’t see the girl, I was in such agony at the time,” he explained, pointing out that he was much more concerned with the “blood coming out of my eyelid” than targeting the culprit.

“I don’t even know who the girl is. When you get popped in the eye and you lose something like that, the last thing you’re looking to do is point the blame at the time; I just wanted to see if it was going to be alright,” he said, adding that he’s “sure she feels bad.”

Campbell revealed on Instagram in August that he went through two surgeries after the accident and that he initially “lost all vision in my right eye as it got split in half.”

But even in the hospital, Campbell maintained his positive outlook, writing, “I still have 1 eye left, looking at the bright side of things.”

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