Big Brother 25’s Reilly Smedley went from being Head of Household week one to the second boot of the season during week two, but she made some meaningful connections during her time in the house.
Reilly, 24, quickly formed an eight-person alliance during her HoH reign and grew particularly close to Jag Bains and Matt Klotz. Early in the season, viewers began to speculate that a showmance might be brewing between her and Matt, 27.
After her eviction, Reilly exclusively told Us Weekly whether there’s any truth to theories of a spark between her and the Deaflympian.
“I think the world of Matt, he is so wonderful. I went into this not wanting any sort of showmance,” she said. “I wanted to focus on making it to the end without any love. But, you know, I didn’t expect to meet someone like Matt.”
As for what the future has in store for the pair, Reilly said, “We’ll have to see when he gets out of the house where that goes. But right now, I can think of him as a really wonderful friend regardless.”
Reilly was evicted unanimously during the Thursday, August 17, episode of the CBS reality series. After realizing that she didn’t have enough votes to stay, she gave her closest allies her blessing to vote against her to avoid making waves with the other side of the house. However, she told Us that she “fought like crazy” to stay up until “the last 10 minutes” before the vote.
“I tried my best. I think I should have stayed,” she said. “But obviously, they’re gonna do what they have to do.”
Before she had to campaign for votes, Reilly attempted to protect herself by asking allies Jag, 25, and Jared Fields to use their Nether Region powers in a way that would’ve benefited her game. Neither of them did, and Reilly told Us that she was “frustrated” with their decisions at the time as she knew then-Head of Household Hisam Goueli was targeting her.
“I think I’m a very intuitive person, so I totally can see when things are going to happen,” she said. “I was just trying to tell them both, like, ‘Listen to me.’ But also, it was their power. It wasn’t my decision in the end. They did what they had to do for their game so, you know, I can’t be too hard on them for it.”
Hisam, 45, surprised his fellow houseguests with just how openly he was targeting Reilly when he asked the entire house for their cooperation in evicting her during his Veto meeting speech. Despite saying that Hisam rubbed her “the wrong way” during a Diary Room confessional, Reilly told Us she has no hard feelings about his Veto meeting declaration.
“[That] was just him being honest in Hisam’s way. He’s a very direct person,” she said. “Whatever he felt like he had to do to improve his game is what he was gonna do, so I respect however he had to do that.”
Hisam decided to gun for Reilly after she admitted to him that he was on her target list. Although the moment of honesty directly led to her eviction, the Nashville resident said she was just trying to match Hisam’s energy.
“He’s a person who really is trying to play an honest game and be straightforward, so I wanted to return that to him and be honest about where my intentions were,” she said. “I wasn’t shy about that.”
Big Brother airs on CBS Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
