Tyler West ‘suffered the most traumatic birthday of his life’ with ‘breakdown’ on Celebrity Race Across The World – comparing show to ‘a long panic attack’

Molly Rainford’s right when she says, ‘We were taking a big risk.’ 

The young EastEnders actor dared to cross some of the most dangerous countries in Central America with no phone and very little money for the new series of Celebrity Race Across The World. 

But the biggest challenge was spending all day and night on the road with her boyfriend Tyler West, the Kiss FM DJ. 

‘Being together 24/7 could have been the making or the breaking of us,’ she says. ‘Thank God it was the making of us.’

The couple faced exhaustion, hunger and fear that brought them to tears, as we shall discover. 

But something must have gone very right because Tyler proposed as soon as they got back, and this is their first interview since the engagement was announced to hundreds of thousands of followers with a romantic sunset post on Insta­gram in August.

‘Don’t get me wrong, there were times during Race when I thought about selling Molly for a goat,’ jokes Tyler. ‘You learn a lot about yourself in those panic situations. You don’t know where you’re going, what you’ll eat or where you’ll sleep.’ 

Surely she’s worth more than that? ‘Oh yeah… a thousand goats.’ Molly laughs. ‘Thanks very much!’ 

But Tyler saves the situation by adding, ‘It was so intense, but I learned that we love spending all that time together. There’s no one else I’d want to travel round the world with.’

They’re very charming, these two lovebirds nestled together on the sofa ahead of our photoshoot. 

Tyler, 29, remembers meeting his future wife for the first time during rehearsals for Strictly Come Dancing in 2022, when they were both contestants. 

‘I was lost, walking around. Molly was lost too. I’d said to myself, “I’m just going to focus on my career, I’m not getting in a relationship.” 

Then I saw her at the end of a corridor and wow, all that went out the window because she was amazing.’

He and Molly, 24, became friends, and then came Tyler’s first perfect score in the competition, after which she says he seized his chance to flirt.  ‘I said something like, “Congratulations on your first 10.” He was like, “Oh, I’m looking at a 10 right now.”’ Molly laughs and turns to him, patting him on the thigh. ‘You must have been shy because you didn’t really say anything else after that.’ 

Tyler looks bashful. ‘I tried that one line, that was all I had!’

They actually faced each other in the dance-off at Blackpool, to see who would be eliminated. 

‘She got me kicked off the show,’ says Tyler, and that was only the first of her victories. ‘Molly won Richard Osman’s House Of Games when we went on that together, and she beat me on The Hit List. I’m surprised she didn’t leave me on Race…’

Their romance really began the night before the Strictly theatre tour across the country in early 2023. 

‘I just said to Molly, “Should we go on a date tonight?” We snuck out the back of the hotel and went for jerk chicken and rum punch in Camden Town, then walked back through Primrose Hill. And that was it.’

Reality hit when they both went back to live with their parents, in Essex and south London. ‘I picked Molly up in my 1998 Volks­wagen Polo and we drove to Bicester Village to do some shopping. We were sat in traffic and we were like, “Oh, this is normal life.” It was really nice. We’ve been together ever since.’

Tyler says they moved in together in February 2024. ‘We bought a place.’ That’s a big decision they’ve kept quiet, isn’t it? ‘Yes, it’s almost bigger than marriage. We’ve got a flat in London, so we can both get to work easily. We’ve made it our little safe haven.’

There are disagreements, often over the central heating, he says. ‘She gets so cold. I’m like, “There’s a cost-of-living crisis. Before you touch the thermostat, have you got a dressing gown on? A puffer jacket? Have you got a blanket?”’

Tyler was about to propose to Molly when they were asked to do Race. ‘I thought, “It’ll have to wait. I’m not taking a ring in a backpack.”’ Why accept the challenge, though? ‘We didn’t go to university and neither of us has ever done the travelling thing. What better opportunity to do a fast-track version of it?’

As soon as the adventure was over he whisked her off to the Greek island of Mykonos, saying they could get a freebie in return for a photoshoot for a hotel. This wasn’t true. Tyler had booked the honeymoon suite himself and hired his own photographer. 

‘I was so nervous on the day of the proposal. I just kept doing emergency toilet breaks, because I had nothing left to chat about, to try to distract her from what was about to happen.’ Molly had no idea. ‘I was thinking, “I hope he’s all right.” I didn’t notice his nerves at all.’

The shot was set up on a balcony, with Molly gazing over the sunset. ‘I turned around and there he was on one knee. I was in such shock, my first reaction was to shout [in joyful disbelief], “No!” Obviously, I was so happy, but I just really wasn’t expecting it. I didn’t know what to say. It was a no-brainer. For the rest of the week I couldn’t sit still. Every time I looked at him I’d be crying or laughing.’

When are they going to get married, then? ‘That’s the million-dollar question,’ says Tyler. ‘We’ve already had the spreadsheet out.’ 

Molly adds, ‘We’re going to get married abroad, so the first thing is to work out where. Next year we’ll explore some venues. Luckily, we know how to use a map after Race!’

They didn’t at first. Like many fans of the show, they assumed the small crew of two or three people who travel with each pair of contestants would intervene if there was a problem. 

‘At the beginning we were struggling to read the map, so we were looking up, thinking, “They’re going to step in, aren’t they?” Not at all,’ says Tyler. Their holidays are usually all-inclusive. ‘All Molly wants to do is lay in the sun.’ Now they were roughing it on night buses and earning handfuls of cash. ‘They show a snippet of us working, but we genuinely put in a whole day. You actually do the job.’

But there were upsides too. ‘Not having our phones was so refreshing,’ says Molly. ‘I felt like we spoke to each other more than we had in so long.’ There’s a moment in the first episode when they’re picking chillies in a field somewhere in Mexico. The sun is beating down and the work is physically hard, but Molly is loving it. ‘This is so peaceful,’ she says, before a slightly shocking confession. ‘I feel like this is the first time I’ve done a job that’s considered normal.’

Tyler, who once worked the front counter at McDonald’s, is incredulous. He had a tough start in life, facing racism and violence on a tough south London estate. His mother Debbie was a nurse who brought up Tyler and his brother Lewis alone after their father left. 

Molly was relatively well off in comparison, the daughter of Chelmsford City footballer-­turned-manager Dave Rainford, who now works for the Premier League.

Molly grew up in Essex and came to fame early, making her first appearance on television aged 11. ‘I was singing on the final of Britain’s Got Talent the night before my Year 6 SATs test!’ 

She went on to sign for Sony and have a pop career, as well as going to theatre school. 

‘Tyler sometimes says, “Don’t you remember playing out as a kid?” I remember gigging. But I loved it. I wouldn’t have wanted to do anything else.’ 

Tyler got his own break when a CBBC team came to do a report on the Team GB handball team he was part of. 

The producers gave him a chance to be on telly in his mid-teens, just as he was beginning to get over the trauma of witnessing a fatal stabbing outside his house. Young Tyler gave evidence against the killers at the Old Bailey but the stress of it all led to him becoming a recluse, unable to go to school for a while.

‘Ever since that experience I’ve always been very much in control of my environment. The minute that’s not the case – as on Race, plus lack of sleep, plus the uncertainty of where you’re going to stay – it becomes one big trigger point. That’s when I rely heavily on Molly to reassure me.’

What does he feel in those moments? ‘It’s like a long panic attack. My anxiety goes through the roof. But the biggest effect is that I turn into a protector. Even though I’m worked up and anxious, I will absolutely be the person by Molly’s side, protecting her,’ he says.

‘Then it’ll hit me later, when we’ve stopped. That’s when Molly comes in, being supportive and saying it’ll be OK. She’s been an angel. It’s nice to have that safe space where I can be vulnerable. I’m so different to the person I was when I suffered with all those things.’ 

Molly says, ‘I realised when Tyler needed me to say, “Come on, we’ve got this.” And he realised when I needed him to cry with me.’

Were they ever really scared? ‘Yeah,’ says Tyler. ‘There are moments where you’re completely out of your comfort zone.’ He doesn’t want to give spoilers but says, ‘I had the most traumatic birthday of my life there. You’ll understand when you see me having a breakdown.’

Molly says, ‘We were trying to get from Mexico to Colombia. It’s a notoriously dangerous part of the world. But there couldn’t have been more people who wanted to help us.’ She grew in confidence on the trip. ‘Tyler knew I wouldn’t be great at making decisions, but he encouraged me. I remembered some of my GCSE Spanish, so he threw me into that, which brought me out of my shell.’

Neither of them were great with the money though. ‘We’re not the strongest at maths,’ he confesses. ‘Rather than try to multiply eight times 60, we’d write down 60 on a piece of paper eight times. We’ve always known money doesn’t grow on trees, but it’s totally different if you’re on the other side of the world on a limited budget and have to decide, “Are we going to eat or have somewhere safe to stay?”’

What were the joyful moments? ‘I’ve never laughed so much,’ says Tyler. ‘I’ve got a belly button hernia every single time.’ Pardon? ‘It pops out when I laugh. I’ve always had it. The doctor says it’s not big enough to remove.’ Molly looks horrified that he’s mentioning it. ‘I don’t like that. I couldn’t even try to think about touching your belly button.’

Molly is leaving EastEnders later this year, having played Anna, daughter of Queen Vic landlord George Knight, since 2023. 

‘I’m really excited. It’s been a great place to learn and grow around some amazing actors. Initially I was starstruck, but now they’re like family. Next I’d love to do something a bit funnier. I’d love to sing again, maybe do something on stage. We don’t have kids, we’re still at the start of our careers, why not take the risk now?’

Tyler says, ‘We’ve got something we’re working on together. The fact we were able to do Race together has given us that spark.’ Will it involve dancing? ‘No!’ Molly laughs. ‘Have you seen our height difference?’

What has changed about their relationship since Race? ‘There are no boundaries between us now,’ says Tyler. ‘We proved how well we work as a team. I feel like if we can get through Race Across The World as a couple, we can do anything.’

Celebrity Race Across the World, Thursday 6 November, 8pm, BBC1 and iPlayer. Tyler hosts The Home Straight, 4-7pm, weekdays on KISS.