Whitney Williams was keen to build a strong foundation in Big Brother 23. She had plans to blend in from the start, and then use her strategic and social skills to make the other houseguests blush. Unfortunately, those dreams of doing well got wiped away a month into the game. The make-up artist was done in by cover-up, a maneuver from the secretive “Cookout” and “Royal Flush” alliances. Whitney started strong, winning one of the Night 1 competitions and single-handedly picking her Aces team. Additionally, she got brought into a majority alliance, becoming part of the “Slaughterhouse” with fellow parent Brandon “Frenchie” French. Unfortunately, that all came crumbling down quickly. Frenchie’s mess of a first week broke up the Slaughterhouse immediately, and the habits of Brent Champagne put the Aces in the crosshairs with the rest of the house. It also didn’t help that she was part of plans to target the Kings in Week 4 to even up the teams. So when Christian Birkenberger became HoH, he was eager to go after the person who had his name in her mouth. He put her up next to Hannah Chaddha, causing some tension as the secret Cookout alliance attempted to keep their fellow member safe without revealing their hand. Whitney believed this was the first week without a true target, only to find herself to be just that. Despite her effort to get her teammate Derek Xiao nominated and evicted, she couldn’t overcome the push against her from all sides of the house, going out in a unanimous vote. Now out of the house, Whitney talks with Parade.com about her reaction to both the Cookout and Royal Flush alliances, how much the Slaughterhouse affected her game, and who she thinks is not long for this game of the remaining houseguests. With your eviction speech last night, it’s safe to say you were expecting to be evicted. But in your goodbye messages, Sarah Beth and Alyssa both say that they were looking to keep you. Does that surprise you at all? Yeah! I was honestly very surprised. That was the most shocking part of last night, hearing how hard Sarah Beth was working for me. She’s the person I talked to the least in the house. Hearing that makes me adore her even more. It does make sense that they would want me to stay. The more girls you can have around you fighting for you, the better. I get it, and I’m excited to go back and see what Sarah Beth was saying. In the days leading up to your eviction, you talked about how difficult it was for you to campaign against Hannah specifically. Talk to me about your approach in your final couple of days in the house. Now that I know about the alliance, it makes a lot more sense why my strategy wasn’t working. In my head, it was very clear that Hannah and Derek X. had a good relationship. But my pitch was that Hannah wasn’t going to target Derek X. Derek X. is clearly Christian’s biggest threat in the game right now. So it makes more sense for Christian and his team to save me, because I’d be more likely to take the shot at Derek X., which would help further their game. In my head, it made a lot of sense. But now that I know they were in an alliance together, I completely understand why they didn’t want me to stay in the game. You mentioned the Royal Flush alliance. But I don’t know if you know about this, but there’s another major alliance in the house that led to you going out. The Cookout! I’m one of the only people not in the major alliances. Yeah! What’s your reaction to the reveal of that alliance, especially given that they were putting in the work to keep Hannah this week? It all makes sense. In my head, the reasoning of why I should stay made so much sense. But now that I hear about the Cookout and the Royal Flush, it makes so much sense why I had to be the one to leave. I’m not afraid to make big moves. I am more than happy to take out big targets if I’m able to. But in my head, I thought they were playing a very safe game and take out someone who hadn’t won any comps. Everything makes sense now that I know about them. You were surprised by your nomination, especially after being told it was because you were targeting the Kings. Talk to me more about that reaction. Christian also kept saying one of the reasons he nominated me was that he couldn’t have another girl stay because there were way more girls than the word guys. But if you look at it, the guys were targeting the guys. The guys were targeting each other! But yeah, I have a lot of mixed feelings and emotions right now. Since I didn’t know about the Royal Flush, in my head, I was like, “You’re making such a weak move. We were friends; this doesn’t make any sense. This is so stupid. You’re playing a dumb game.” It didn’t make any sense to me. My main emotion was just confusion at that point. And that’s why I felt so emotional when I talked to him after. I don’t know if you guys saw it, but we had a moment in the HoH room where I got emotional… Yeah, we saw you cry into some toilet paper to Christian. Oh no, I was crying into toilet paper?! But honestly, I just felt very, very confused. Out of everybody in the house, I had the best relationship with X. And then after X, I had a good relationship with Christian and Alyssa. So the fact that their team targeted me in particular was just incredibly confusing, and I felt pretty backstabbed. To that point, you told people you would have gone after Christian and Alyssa if you stayed in your campaigning. If you had survived the eviction last night and won HoH, who would you have targeted? I think a lot of it depends on who would have voted for me. I would have gone after either Christian and Alyssa or Derek X. and Kyland because I could tell they were obviously working together as well. So I would have gone after one of those groups, depending on who voted for me. If I won HoH, I would have had one-on-one meetings, figured out where the votes landed, and then decided who I would put up from there. You mentioned Xavier was the person you were closest to in the house. Does finding out he was in two major alliances that led to your eviction affect your opinions on him at all? Yes and no. I wish that I had more people fighting for me, and I wish that he would have been one person to do that. It sounds like Sarah Beth was waiting for me, and Alyssa was fighting for me. So hearing that X wasn’t one of the people also fighting for me is hurtful. But at the same time, I do know that when you’re in an alliance, you can only go against them so much. He had to go with what the majority wanted. So I understand it, and I am not upset with him. That confusion you mentioned before seemed to turn to frustration by the end of the week. Particularly in situations like Derek X. already talking about you not being there next week. How difficult was it to deal with people already writing you off days before your eviction? It’s kind of an out-of-body experience. The second that I was put up as a nominee, everybody dispersed. And I was all alone. I would walk around the house and be like, “Where is everyone? I’m so confused.” If two of my teammates were put up on the block, I would have immediately gone up to them and be like, “What’s going on? Are you okay? How do we get out of this? Let’s fix this situation.” And my teammates just disappeared. Let’s go back to the beginning of your game. You seemed to be in a strong place in the Slaughterhouse at the end of Week 1, only for it to all fall apart the next week. Talk to me about the rise and fall of that alliance. When the slaughterhouse was originally formed, I was excited but also very cautious. It was formed so quickly. I feel like Frenchie was just kind of like, “Oh, I like your personality. You’re in the alliance.” Frenchie mushed it together without logically thinking it through and considering why he’s putting people in it. So I had a feeling it would probably implode; I didn’t expect it to implode so soon. And I think that was a big reason I wasn’t in an alliance from then on out. I was so strong in wanting that alliance to work that I didn’t make an effort to build a second alliance, which it seems like everybody else ended up doing pretty early on. Early on, you and Brent were originally paired together by the other houseguests. But it’s very clear you did not enjoy having him in the house. Does that perception surprise you? It does! I orchestrated him leaving the house. I went up to every single team and said, “Hey, this is why we should not have Brent. I’m going to talk to my team and see if we can throw the HoH comp to make sure we don’t have safety, so one of you can take the shot at getting Brent out.” That’s so wild to me; you’re the first person to tell me this. I can’t believe people connected Brent and me because I could not handle being around the guy. It was physically painful to be around him. I don’t know why people in the house thought that way. Maybe that’s the reason why I wasn’t in any other alliance. Speaking of Brent, the houseguests who have been evicted so far had some interesting things to say about you. Travis said you were a “very average player” who bounces around to other people’s strategies. Frenchie called you a “popular girl.” And Brent said you “can dish but can’t take it.” Do those reactions surprise you? Brent. We used to fight so much that X used to give us crap and say, “Are you guys actually a divorced couple, and you’re thrown into this house to play together?” He was so adamant that I can’t take constructive criticism. But really, I just can’t stand the guy. With Frenchie that is surprising that he would say that I was the popular girl. I feel like I kept to myself a little bit more than many people in the house. And Travis’ words, I completely understand. I did feel a little bit lost, to be honest. Well, now it’s your turn! Let’s finish with some rapid-fire thoughts about your fellow houseguests. Starting with Alyssa. I think she’s using the guys’ appreciation toward her as a strategy. I think she’s flirtatious.Azah. Very quiet. I feel like she’s a floater, and I don’t think she’ll make it too much further.Britini. Britini is a little ray of sunshine! I love her to death, but I don’t think she’ll make it too much longer.Christian. (Makes a disgusted sound.) Christian rubs me the wrong way. I think she’s very fake.Claire. Claire is very fun. She’s spunky and weird, but in a good way.Derek F. Big D! I love Big D. He’s one of my favorite people in the house. I think he’s sassy and strong. I do wish that he made more of an effort to stay in the house because right now, I feel like he’s coasting a little bit.Derek X. Derek X. is very intelligent, clearly very athletic. But I’m spiteful, and I want him to go.Speaking of the Aces, Hannah. I wish Hannah could make it further. But I think people are very aware of how intelligent Hannah is. So she’ll be a target sooner rather than later.Kyland. Kyland has a little bit of an overly flirtatious side. I think he rubs girls the wrong way, and he needs to be a lot more cautious of that.Sarah Beth. Oh, Sarah Beth. I hope she’s one of the finalists. I think she’s very intelligent. She’s playing a great social game. And she’s an all-around good human.Tiffany. Tiffany is very hard-headed, but lovable.And finally, Xavier. Xavier is charming. And I think everybody in America would be crazy not to have a crush on him. I mean, have you seen the guy?! I’m sure everybody has a crush on X. Next, check out our interview with Brent Champagne, who was evicted in Week 3.
