Rachel Reilly Says Daughter Adora, 9, Believes She Could Be a ‘Big Brother’ Winner Like Mom (Exclusive)

Reilly achieved her goal of proving to fans she still had it. She was a major contender to win the game if it were not for her shocking elimination due to the White Locust twist. Reilly was unexpectedly eliminated after she failed to complete a puzzle maze while inside a hamster wheel. Looking back on it now, Reilly explains that the game of Big Brother is to “expect the unexpected” even when it includes a twist involving a “hamster wheel of death.”

“It did not turn out how I would have loved for it to turn out, but I feel like, what a great way to go out. I never got evicted, I never got a vote against me, and I never even went on the block this season,” she says, while looking at the bright side of the situation. “And people tried … so I think that that’s a lot to credit to my game play, that I was able to stay off the block. I never had a vote against me. I was eliminated, just like the icon I am.”

Reilly’s elimination from Big Brother 27 outraged fans and alumni of the game. After learning about the reaction to her departure, Reilly was “so grateful for the fan love and support,” especially while she was in the dark due to the “Big Brother bubble.” She was also “floored” at how other former Big Brother players came to her defense as well.

“It was so nice to see the support from the Big Brother community and how much they were really rooting for me, and it’s just so nice that I was able to just kind of reconnect with them,” she tells Us. “Some people told me that I reinvigorated their love for the game as well, which is really exciting.”

While Reilly wasn’t able to take home the win a second time, she left her mark on the season as her elimination set the tone for the season’s endgame. In her dramatic exit, Reilly made a passionate speech to the remaining players about what it takes to be a Big Brother legend.

“I think that a lot of it had to do with the fact that I said, you know, you have to play a strategic, social and competitive game, that social game is so important,” she reflects. “I told them I wanted to see them step up, get blood on their hands. And I know Morgan [Pope] took that very seriously. I know Ashley [Hollis] took that very seriously.”

Hollis, 25, was one of Reilly’s closest allies and friends in the game, and the lawyer ended up taking home the victory during the finale. The Big Brother 27 finale was the most-watched episode of the series in the past three years as it was watched by more than 4 million viewers. Reilly proudly voted for Hollis to join her amongst the ranks of Big Brother winners.

“Big Brother is a very social game, and we saw that with Ashley’s win. She played amazing social and strategic games and Ashley won competitions when she needed to,” she explains. “She won probably the two most important competitions that she could have won. Week one, she would have gone home, and at the finale, she literally won the final three HOH, which I knew was going to guarantee her that win.”