Last week, Kenney Kelley became the third person to be released from Big Brother House in season 26. Now the 52-year-old Boston police officer reveals why he wanted to leave the series even before he was fired.
Kelley speaks out
In particular, it sounds like Kelley was not prepared for the mental aspect of the show.
“I completely underestimated the emotional aspect … I didn’t realize how much downtime the game entailed,” Kelley told the New York Post.
“I was really excited about the HOH competition and the nominations and veto competitions and stuff like that,” he added. “When that part of the week was over, it was time for the social game and working with the alliances. And that’s when I really fell into a hole.”
Kelley went on to say that he had a difficult time getting nominated during his three weeks in office.
“And especially because I’m older,” he explained. “I didn’t have much in common with a lot of the younger people, and Angela (Murray) put me on the hit list the first week. That completely destroyed our relationship and our ability to work together. That made it difficult. But the next week I was in the game and ready to go. So that’s why it was such a rollercoaster ride.”
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Kelley missed his family
Kelley also said his family played a major role in his desire to leave the game.
“My daughter wasn’t happy about me leaving anyway. But my wife was really excited and super supportive,” he explained. “She had a hard time with it herself, but she had a good support system at home. She said she was yelling at the live broadcasts at the time and telling me to focus on the matter and start doing things, but I obviously couldn’t hear her.”
“There was a lot going on here,” Kelley continued. “Not necessarily anything bad, but my pool turned green, the tree in the backyard fell, the air conditioning stopped working, and my daughter was still having a lot of trouble with me not being in the house. So I’m OK with what happened.”
Ultimately, Kelley doesn’t feel like he could have done much differently.
“I would have liked to give the fans a little more, but to be honest, I really gave them everything I had, especially given the many emotions I went through,” he said.
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Kelley’s final thoughts
Kelley concluded by saying he was “still unhappy” with the behavior of 50-year-old real estate agent Angela Murray during her first week as HOH, and was particularly angry that she targeted his ally Matt Hardeman, who ultimately went home first.
“But she’s human,” Kelley said. “She made some mistakes. She apologized for them. But ultimately that’s not what I’m concerned about.”
“Then when she was in the house and didn’t go home, she was very isolated and people wouldn’t talk to her and argue with her all the time,” he continued. “But I wouldn’t do that. And I said it straight to the house: ‘Listen, I’m not going to work with her as a player, but I’m a human being and I don’t want her to feel that way. So I’m going to talk to her and have conversations with her.'”
“So I had a lot of good conversations with her and let her know, ‘Hey, I’ll have personal conversations with you, but if we work together, that’s it. The train has left the station,'” Kelley recalled.
There are thirteen participants left. Big Brother House. Episodes air Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays on CBS and Paramount+.
