It’s been a long time since we saw Kenny Santucci on MTV, but his time on The Challenge abruptly stopped after sexual assault allegations came to light. Since then, Kenny has remained fairly quiet about the situation, but he recently appeared on the Rare in NY podcast to discuss how the scandal impacted him.
Note: Kenny maintains innocence in this situation. He was never found guilty, and the case was settled outside of court. So if you’re looking for more details on the alleged incident, you won’t find them here.
The podcast host mentioned that Kenny, who owns Strong New York, has a dedicated following. They showed up after a 2025 incident when he appeared on Good Day New York to help host Rosanna Scotto with pull ups. But, Scotto fell when she was getting off the bar and Kenny was unable to catch her.
Online comments have also been unkind to Kenny, and when is name is mentioned, references to the 2009 sexual assault allegations are often brought up.
Kenny revealed he was mostly silent about the incident because his lawyer told him to be. When the case was filed, MTV hired lawyers for him and Evan, and Kenny followed the legal team’s advice. This meant he’d see a lot of damaging comments online but he couldn’t respond. He also didn’t want to feel like “OJ” and spend his whole life denying the allegations.
While the case never went to court, Kenny said he wished it would have, because the investigation would have found nothing. But the legal system is designed to resolve matters before they get seen by a judge. Even so, he was involved in this case for two years. During which, he couldn’t find a job and his character got destroyed.
Kenny mentioned he felt suicidal at points, but he didn’t want to follow through with the act because he would have felt like he lost.
These struggles have ultimately let him to open a gym, which has become a successful franchise in New York, but he can’t fully escape the backlash from the sexual assault accusations. Usually, Kenny tries to avoid online comment sections, but the pull-up incident brought a lot of attention. This attention means he gets MTV-related comments, but it also led him to share his side of the story after many years.
Stop Being Polite 