Rachel Reilly told producers that she was willing to compete on Big Brother 22: All-Stars even while being pregnant. Rachel first competed on Big Brother 12, where she placed ninth. A year later, Rachel came back to compete on BB13... and took home the $500,000 grand prize. She is often remembered for being a huge personality on the show. Moreover, Rachel's quote "Floaters, grab a life vest" is so iconic that it ended up on the BB22 house's mural of most memorable moments.
When Big Brother: All-Stars was announced, many fans thought that Rachel Reilly would be one of the contenders for a spot in the season. However, it was revealed that Rachel is pregnant, and is too far into the pregnancy to compete on a show running for three months between July and October. In addition, it would've been hard for Rachel to keep up during certain competitions, and she wouldn't be getting the proper medical attention that she would need to monitor her baby's health. However, even taking all of those factors into consideration, it seems like Rachel did try to convince the producers otherwise.
During a live interview with Dominic Briones on Daniele Donato Briones' Instagram, Rachel Reilly revealed that she got pregnant in February and received the call for Big Brother: All-Stars in March. Rachel said, "You guys are, like, a month late. And I told them, 'I'll do it pregnant, I don't care.' Put me in pregnant, it's been done... Someone had a baby in, like, [Big Brother] Denmark." Producers told Rachel that, legally, they couldn't cast her. As a solution, Rachel suggested casting her together with her sister, BB15's Elissa Slater. According to this plan, Elissa would do all the physical competitions and Rachel would play the rest of the game.
It's not entirely surprising that the Big Brother producers decided not to cast pregnant Rachel. Going off of her timeline of getting pregnant in February, she would've been five months pregnant in July. Considering that BB22 will air until October, Rachel could've still been in the house eight months pregnant. There would've been a lot of liability attached to this casting decision, adding even more precautions than they already have due to concerns with COVID-19.
Hopefully, fans won't have to wait this long for a third All-Stars to happen. If that is indeed the case, then Rachel Reilly might still get her time to compete once again on the show. In any case, it is safe to say that Big Brother 22 just wasn't the season for Rachel.
Big Brother 22: All-Stars airs Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 8pm EST on CBS.
Source: Instagram