Uchenna And Joyce Beg No More

'Amazing Race' Winners And Runner-Up Teams Talk About Season

(CBS)  Married couple Uchenna and Joyce Agu started the last leg of the race in last place and with no money.

"It was hard. It was humiliating," Joyce tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith, recalling their time at the Jamaica airport begging for money. "It was so devastating just to understand what it feels like to not have anything. And people looking at you like, you know, you're trash or you have some disease. And then, people didn't want to give us anything. I mean, it was just so hard. We want to tell them,’ We’re tax-paying citizens,' but we couldn't really say."

Well, those days are over. The couple received a $1 million check from show host Phil Keoghan Wednesday on The Early Show.. With part of the money, they plan to adopt if the fertility treatment does not work.

"Before the race began, we've gone through a lot," Uchenna tells co-anchor Rene Syler. "Layoffs and little financial deprivation there. Couples tend to really get at each other when there's some financial strife. And we got to pretty high levels of issues."

But Joyce notes that the show proved that when they have a common goal, they can work together.

"I let him handle his strength, and he allows me to handle my strength - strengths that he didn't know I had, I'm sure," she says.

It was at the Jamaican airport that Joyce was ready to give up, but the encouraging words from her husband put her back on track.

"I thought, this is it," Joyce says. "People are so rude to us. Nobody would give us any money, and I thought we were asking very kindly, but he just kept saying: We're not going to give up."

And with that they ended the hopes of former "Survivor" champs Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich's of conquering two separate reality shows. Rob and Amber were in the lead, already on a plane to Miami from Puerto Rico, when Uchenna and Joyce were once again begging. This time, they were pleading for the airline to put the jetway back on the full and about-to-depart plane for them.