Kim and Penn Holderness Reveal Why They Think His ADHD Helped Them Win The Amazing Race

The secret to winning The Amazing Race? Season 33 co-champ Penn Holderness was born with it. 

"I think ADHD is why we won," his wife and fellow winner Kim Holderness told E! News in an exclusive interview of her husband's lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder, "because he was able to tune everything else out on every single task and be like, Oh, we'll just harness up this mule, or whatever the weird, weird things we had to do. Whereas I was seeing the other teams, the guy holding the microphone over me, the cameraman looking here, because maybe I should be looking there. And so I, with my neurotypical brain, was a disaster. But he could get it done."

And while Penn, 49, insisted their 2021 victory was a total team effort—"I had tunnel vision, and she had everything vision. And we needed both"—his keen ability to fixate on the task at hand was one of their keys to success. 

"I had to listen to this fairly boring sermon about Greek saints, and I had to memorize it, and then put them all in the right place," Penn recalled of slipping into hyperfocus to accomplish one particularly challenging roadblock. "When ADHD-ers have something that they really, really care about, they can zone everything out." 

So with $1 million on the line and no other distractions, "I remembered every word that guy said, I remembered every picture they showed me," continued Penn. "So that was what that hyperfocus was—the ability to listen and not let anything else leave your brain. And, traditionally, people with ADHD, when they are hyperfocusing, have excellent memory."

Which is why Penn argues in the YouTube couple's latest book, ADHD is Awesome: A Guide To (Mostly) Thriving With ADHD, that his chronic condition is actually a superpower, not an affliction. 

"I wanted to do a deep dive into what it was and why my brain works the way it does," the former news anchor explained. "And what I've discovered was it's actually not all that bad."

When your job is creating content, for instance, that "very intense tunnel vision," as Penn described, comes in handy: "I've made some edits in about an hour and a half that most people can't do that quickly." 

He's had to put systems in place to ensure he doesn't, say, leave the kitchen stove on or drive off with his coffee cup on his car's roof. ("The way that my brain works," he said, "I can put a mug on top of my car so I can throw everything else in and as soon as I look at the other stuff, my coffee mug has exited my working memory and I don't know that it's there." So, he's since placed a magnet on the roof of his ride to serve as a reminder.)

But, also, noted Kim, 48, of their research, "an ADHD brain proven by science is more creative. And so a lot of the content you see, I'll come up with an idea and it goes into his brain, and it comes out something magical and different."

And then there's that time they won $1 million dollars after racing their way through 17 cities, seven countries and one 18-month COVID-related pause, their Amazing Race season forced into an extended pitstop in late February 2020. 

Fun fact, revealed Kim, "The check comes in the mail. It comes in a FedEx envelope that they leave on your doorstep."

And though the North Carolina-based pair successfully navigated themselves through the streets of Glasgow, Bonifacio and Thessaloniki, getting those two $500,000 checks into their savings account was a comedy of errors. 

"He was so excited, he ripped it open," Kim recalled of her husband of 19 years. "So we had to drive to the bank and, like, tape it."

From there, though, they followed their game plan to a T, even holding off on replacing Penn's car because they didn't want to get too crazy with their prize money. 

Instead, "we paid taxes," said Kim. Another 30 percent they donated and shared, and roughly 28 percent was set aside for their daughter Lola, 17, and son Penn Charles, 14, to attend college. "And I think that left us with just under 10 grand."

Which is when they realized the world was waiting for them. And so, continued Kim, "We took the kids on a trip to France last year."

And while they'll always have Paris, they're even more thrilled about the funds earmarked for college now that their eldest is getting ready to tour schools. "That's a lifestyle change," said Kim of the nest egg. "We can go into it without having to contribute so much. We will feel that in the next few years. But at this point, nothing has changed."

And though Kim joked "The Amazing Race won't cover Duke," and its roughly $83,000-a-year tuition, their teens might just have something more valuable. 

Following the success of their 2013 release "XMAS Jammies" (a parody of Will Smith's "Miami" meant to be their digital Christmas card), Lola and Penn have grown up watching their parents make YouTube videos—and may just enter the family business. 

Lola is seeking out schools with entrepreneurship programs, revealed Kim, "She said, 'I want to be a boss.'"

As for Penn Charles, also diagnosed with ADHD, he sometimes forgets to turn in his homework, but is every bit as creative as his talented dad. 

"He is his father in a smaller body," said Kim. With the same confidence in his abilities. "He said the other day, 'Well, I'll just do what you guys do,'" Kim continued of her youngest's career plans. "So I think that at some point, they'll fight over the passwords and figure it out."