Abby and Will – ‘Amazing Race’ Duo’s Incredible Backstory
Abby and Will on Amazing Race have been waiting years to get on the CBS show – and the backstory for Abby Garrett and Will Freeman‘s pretty incredible. Last week, we saw them come in eighth on the season premiere of TAR Season 34. Now see why they might be one of the strongest pairs of the season.
Abby and Will – Amazing Race Couple’s Stunning Backstory
There are 12 pairs racing around the world this season — with the show starting outside of the US for the first time ever. We met Will Freeman and Abby Garrett, ages 25 and 24, at the starting line in Munich, Germany.
The Birmingham, Alabama natives are listed as childhood sweethearts. That’s right – childhood – not high school or college… Although they were those two. Will these deep-rooted bonds from childhood help them work well together on The Amazing Race?
Will grew up down the street from Abby in Mountain Brook, AL, a suburb of Birmingham. She was always around and was a playmate of Will’s little sister. Abby went to school with him, but it was just friends until high school.
So, even though they’re childhood friends, it was not until their teen years that they paired up. When they were 16, friends called their obvious connection to their attention, and they began dating. They were so close they went to college together at the University of Mississippi.
Grad School Split but a Sweet Reunion for Race Pair
Watching The Amazing Race was a passion of Abby Garrett’s from childhood. She got Will Freeman to start watching it with her. As dating teens, they talked about doing the race together since their teens.
But after graduating from Ole Miss, the pair split but remained best friends, as they’d been since early childhood. Will went off to get his Master’s degree at The University of Missouri. Meanwhile, Abby went up to the East Coast to attend MIT for her graduate studies.
After graduation, they reunited and moved to Boston together. In 2020, Will Freeman and Abby Garrett finally sent off their application video to Amazing Race. In response, they got only silence.
Finally, this year, they got the call from CBS reality casting that they could do the race. Abby’s reaction to the casting call? She screamed.
What Time is The Amazing Race on Tonight?
Tonight, it’s time for Season 34, Episode 2 of the race with Phil Koeghan seeing the competitors speed out of Munich, heading for nearby Austria. Tune into CBS at 9:30 PM Eastern/8:30 Central. It’s a big 90-minute episode tonight after a 90-minute supersized Survivor episode.
One couple, as seen in the promo Above, didn’t understand that Austria is a whole other country, it seems. We didn’t get a ton of screen time with Will and Abby on the premiere because of larger distractions. There’s NFL coach Rex Ryan (Jets/Bills) plus a pair of twins separated at birth.
And there’s also Big Brother alums Derek Xiao and Claire Rehfuss racing alongside them. Watch closely to see more of Abby Garrett and her longtime love Will Freeman on tonight’s episode.
The Amazing Race airs Wednesday nights on CBS — and check Soap Dirt for more reality TV news daily.