WARNING! This interview contains spoilers about the next Head of Household. Please do not read further if you don’t intend to know who the new HoH is before Sunday’s episode of Big Brother 27.
Big Brother’s house is open once more! Every week, Parade’s Mike Bloom will be bringing you interviews with this season’s houseguests as they get evicted from the game.
Katherine Woodman knows how to wait. It was a skill she developed before she stepped foot into the Big Brother house, working as a fine dining server. And, the first few weeks of Season 27, her gameplay choice off the menu was to lay low (sans her stirring the pot on “Showergate” with Ashley Hollis the first night). However, her stock was rising in the eyes of one of her fellow houseguests: Rylie Jeffries. The bullrider gave her no bull about how much he instantaneously cared for her, even telling her in the first week that he would do anything for her to win over him. Over the course of seven weeks, the two would grow closer and become an outright showmance, though it wasn’t without its fair share of concern from the fans.
While Rylie and Katherine soon became regarded as a pair, they were still on the outs of the house from a strategic perspective. After being left out of the eviction vote, the sudden ups and downs of Rylie winning HoH, then losing it, prompted a fiery argument between Katherine, Ashley and Rachel Reilly. The next week, she brought that fire into the competitions, where she made it to the final round of the Veto competition. A nominated Vince Panaro begged Katherine in the moment to let him have the Veto in exchange for $5,000. But she relished her opportunity to be seen as her own player rather than a “tagalong” to Rylie, choosing to spurn Vince.
Ultimately, though, the mustachioed man would have the last laugh. The next week, Katherine’s close ally Lauren Domingue chose to use the Veto on Vince, causing Rachel to go through on her promise to put Rylie up on the block. Katherine’s disappointment turned to devastation when Rylie was shockingly evicted, with Vince serving as a key swing vote. She channeled that pain into fuel, as she became one of the last two standing in this season’s Wall competition. Yet again, Vince offered her a deal, promising to keep her safe if he won. Yet again, she denied the unemployed man’s application.
Vince was the one to come away the victor this time, and at first, it seemed Katherine was in for a stress-free week, with Mickey Lee the house target. But Mickey’s Veto win left the house, much like anyone after a cup of poisoned wine, gagging, looking for a new target. To Vince’s chagrin, he was swayed back and forth over the coming days between taking the “easy route” with Katherine or taking a big shot at Rachel. Ultimately, in a decision that came down to the wire, Rachel’s numerous close relationships paid off, as her allies convinced Vince to put Katherine up. A few days later, Kelley Jorgensen sank her ball during the “BB Block Buster” competition. And it promptly sank Katherine’s game, as she was evicted near-unanimously.
Now out of the house, Katherine talks with Parade about her reaction to Vince’s nomination, and how her relationship with Rylie (including her reaction to fan controversy around his behavior).
Related: Everything to Know About Big Brother 27
Let’s go back to a week ago. You stood up on that wall, and Vince offered you safety in exchange for giving him HoH. Whether it was due to your feelings towards him in that moment or confidence that you’d win, you chose not to take him up on that. Talk to me about that decision, and how do you look back on that now?
Vince already had betrayed my trust more times than I can count on one hand, I think. So I knew any deal that I made with him would have essentially no merit. It would be almost the same thing as not having a deal. I didn’t fully trust or even halfway trust him to stay good on his word, and I didn’t want to stay with my word either. If I told him that he would be safe with me, he more than likely wouldn’t have been. So I think it was just two people that were going to lie to each other, and there didn’t seem to be much of a point to make a deal, because neither of us were going to follow through.
How surprised were you when he ultimately nominated you this week? I’m not sure if you know, but it really was back and forth between you and Rachel, and it seemed like a true eleventh-hour decision.
Well, I’m glad it seemed more indecisive than it felt. I definitely felt like I was the only person putting a water bottle on a forest fire, trying to be like, “Don’t make it me.” But it didn’t turn out to be that shocking. I think it kind of hit me the night before, when I noticed how much he was talking to other people in his room, and how much he was kind of shutting himself off from different random people talking to him. And especially that morning, he seemed to want to cut our conversation a little quick. And I think it’s because he wanted the reassurance of putting me up to feel slightly better about it, because he needed that, I guess. So I don’t know. It wasn’t too surprising when he was wanting to talk to Rachel more than he wanted to talk to me. I was like, “It’s gonna be me.”
Speaking of a forest fire, let’s rewind to the beginning of the game, when you seemed to be fanning the flames with “Showergate.” From our perspective, you were one of the people spreading the most information about Ashley’s shower – which, by the way, was only about 30 minutes. Was that intentional on your part?
No, it wasn’t an intentional thing at all. I definitely did think that she was in the shower pretty much that whole time. And she stuck with that because she didn’t want people to be suspicious of her speaking with Vince for so long. But yeah, it wasn’t intentional. I genuinely just thought that we were all laughing and making a joke about how long it was taking for her, and I didn’t think anything of it. And Jimmy was even saying, “You know that’s the type of stuff that puts you on the block.” And I was like, “Whoa!” And I repeated that, and I didn’t quote him directly, so I think that’s how maybe it started to seem like it was me. But that’s okay. I didn’t really care about them, and I don’t really care much now. And it didn’t help, because she’s still there!
Ashley was one of the people you got into a tense argument with the night Rylie lost his HoH, alongside Rachel. And we have to get into your thoughts on the veteran. Because you did not mince words these past couple of weeks talking about her. You said that her husband and family wouldn’t be proud of making a big game move in targeting Rylie, and accused her of splitting you up while you were grieving your mother. You made comments about her age and even jokingly said you would make hate pages about her after leaving the house. Talk to me more about what fueled those words.
Honestly, I kind of realized that I wasn’t really going to be friends with Rachel in the house, and that the bridge was crossed a while ago. So I just kind of decided like, “Okay, I’m going to have a little bit of fun with this. If I’m not going to love someone being in this house, I’m going to really commit to not loving them being in that house.” So I think that’s kind of what I ran with with Rachel. I didn’t want to forget how she made me feel. And I think anybody that makes me sob hysterically for three days doesn’t fully deserve my forgiveness in three days either. So yeah, I coped with some humorous comments. And I also coped with the fact that she did send home somebody that she cried to multiple times about her husband with and leaned on for support constantly. Her brand of being a villain is her most important part of her life.
You were very vocal to Lauren about her not using the Veto on Vince, knowing Rylie could go up. And, even though she did, you two were tight allies, and she was the only vote to keep you this week. Why did she not get your ire, considering how much she also contributed to Rylie going home? And how tough was it to compartmentalize that fact with your relationship?
That was really hard to deal with. But the list of people in a house that I trusted was growing slimmer and slimmer every single week. So, despite the fact that Lauren did something that I didn’t want her to do, I’m not her keeper, and I did try to convince her as much as I could to not do it. But she didn’t do it with the intent of really trying to get Rylie up there. So I had to forgive it, because I knew that I could still at least trust her words at the end of the day. And even if I couldn’t, I could trust her words more than a lot of people in the house.
Let’s get into the Rylie of it all. I’m sure you got a big dose of the unexpected in that very first week, when he is so forward as to tell you that he would do anything to make sure you won the game, even over himself. Talk to me about the initial stages of your relationship.
Initial reaction, I was like, “Okay, this is maybe an infatuation thing. It’s a crush.” I really thought he’d get over it in a week or something if I didn’t feed into it much. Because I was pretty cautious of wanting to be perceived as even a “flirtmance,” let alone a showmance with anyone in the house. But he just proved to be such a great person. Every day that I had there that was a good day was mainly attributed to him, so I just couldn’t help it. And yeah, it was surprising that he felt it fairly quickly. But I wasn’t that slow to follow, to be honest.
I’d be remiss not to talk about the fandom’s reaction to your relationship with Rylie. From watching the live feeds, it seemed like you would put up boundaries, like not wanting to kiss or sleep in the same bed, that he would not consent to. Additionally, there were times when he would tell you to “watch your attitude” and that “I’m being with you outside of this, whether you like it or not.” Fans have felt, through that behavior, that he was talking down to you being controlling, and not consenting to boundaries that you were placing. Give me your reaction to that.
I think with things like kissing and stuff like that, it was more so, at least for me, founded in reasons that weren’t necessarily that it was crossing a boundary. I was just thinking of having to watch me kiss somebody! [Laughs.] Like, I don’t want to see that! But I was excited to kiss him. I was glad when I did. I would have been near him all the time every day if I could. I didn’t want to bug other people in the house. That was the main issue as to why I didn’t want to sleep in the same bed as him most of the time, or I didn’t want them rolling their eyes at us. I didn’t want to feel like there was animosity towards both of us and make his position or my position in the house more precarious. So that was mainly the concerns with things like that.
And then the other stuff, that house is extremely emotional. And if I let myself get incredibly worked up, as I almost did multiple times, I probably would have flipped out on everyone in the house. So I genuinely probably did need someone like Rylie to be like, “Okay, take a breath. Calm down. Nothing’s happening yet.” And I think it actually did help center me a bit, because I could feel myself spiraling multiple times in the house just with stress and paranoia and anxieties. And sometimes flipping out about it actually isn’t the best thing. And I did have the room to do that as well, a couple times. So I think specific instances maybe just weren’t seen the best. But I never felt uncomfortable or unhappy with anything.
To finish, give your rapid-fire thoughts on each of the remaining houseguests. Starting with Ashley.
Spoiled! [Laughs.]
Ava.
Lovable.
Keanu.
Silly.
How would you feel if I told you he was the new HoH?
Oh my God. Happy! [Laughs.] Good job, Keanu!
Kelley.
Crazy, in a good way.
Lauren.
Sweet.
Mickey.
Smart.
Morgan.
[Pause.] No idea.
Rachel.
Frustrating.
Vince.
Liar. [Laughs.]
And finally, Will.
Tired. [Laughs.]
Related: ‘Big Brother 27’s Rylie Jeffries Responds to Controversy Around His Relationship With Katherine: ‘I Respect Boundaries’ (Exclusive)
