It’s been an eventful first week in the Big Brother house, and it’s ended with contestant Paloma Aguilar exiting the series “due to a personal matter.”
At the top of the Thursday, July 14, live eviction episode, host Julie Chen said, “An unexpected turn of events has now changed everything.” The episode then showed clips of Aguilar talking about her struggles with anxiety and lack of sleep. She eventually entered the diary room and did not return to the house.
Fellow contestant Daniel Durston, the current Head of Household, gathered everyone in the living room and read a note from production. “Due to a personal matter, Paloma will no longer be continuing in the Big Brother game,” he read. “She wanted to pass along that she loves you all and wishes you all the best.”
Due to Aguilar leaving the game, Chen revealed to the houseguests that this week’s eviction vote between Taylor Hale and Terrence Higgins would now be canceled.
Aguilar’s exit came after fans and former contestants spoke out against the show for the bullying and microaggressions directed toward Hale by her fellow houseguests. During one conversation, Durston told Aguilar he was worried about having “two Black people on the block at the end of my week.” Aguilar responded, “We need to put that aside, and America needs to put that aside… It can be explained afterwards. We need to play this game.”
Throughout the week, viewers of the show’s live feeds had questioned Aguilar’s behavior, with Reality Blurred describing it as “increasingly erratic.” At one point, she said, “I have an idea: We should all wear our finale outfits, boycott this s**t, and leave so we can know it’s not a simulation. Self-evict. I thought I was going to eject — sorry, I’m really thinking I’m in a simulation right now.”
She had also broken the Big Brother rules by promising other contestants that she would split the prize money with them if she won the series.
Big Brother, Season 24, Sundays and Wednesdays at 8 pm et, Thursdays at 9 pm et, CBS