During week 3, Big Brother 24 contestant Daniel Durston attacked Taylor Hale, holding her responsible for Paloma Aguilar's exit, but Paloma's own words prove that Daniel was wrong. During Big Brother week 1, Paloma turned the house against Taylor, and attempted to have her backdoored. Viewers noticed the microaggressions directed toward Taylor, a Black woman, by the other houseguests, and sympathized with her feelings of isolation. However, when Paloma self-evicted due to living with mental health issues in the house, Taylor was safe for the week.
In the second week, Taylor survived the Big Brother Chopping Block, when the house blindsided Joe "Pooch" Pucciarelli and voted him out unanimously. She was thrilled to not be nominated in week 3 by the new Head of Household, Matt "Turner" Turner. However, she did not know that she was once again being targeted as a possible backdoor plan.
As part of the Festie Bestie twist, Nicole Layog paired herself with Taylor, with the thought that she could go on the block with Taylor, and the house would easily vote her out. However, plans changed when Turner and some of the other houseguests realized that Taylor could be an asset to their game, and their new target is Ameerah Jones. When Nicole was struggling with her feelings about manipulating Taylor, she was crying. Taylor, who did not know why Nicole was upset, attempted to comfort her by telling her that if she ever felt that she had to "tap out of the fight, don't even consider me." Although Taylor meant that Nicole should not push herself too hard for Taylor's sake as her Festie Bestie partner, Nicole took it to mean that Taylor was passive aggressively telling her to quit the game, and was very offended. She told her final two partner Daniel about it, and he attacked a shocked and confused Taylor.
Daniel Confronts Taylor
Daniel said in his Diary Room session that he was fuming, and that Taylor tried to do the same thing to Paloma that she did to Nicole. When Daniel began his argument with Taylor, she felt that it was so out of left field that she thought he was joking. He told her, "From this point on, just stop." He told her not to speak to him until the finale, and said, "The thing you did to Paloma? You're trying to do to her [Nicole]? You can [expletive] right off. You don't think America's watching all that?" Daniel then walked away. When Taylor tried to talk to him after she realized that he was serious, he yelled, "No, stop! I will never forget what you did to Paloma. You think she didn't spiral because of you? You didn't add to that? And now you're trying to do it to Nicole? Mind games?" A tearful Taylor whispered, "That's not fair," and was shocked when Daniel told her not to speak to Nicole like that ever again. However, what Daniel didn't know was that Paloma had already addressed that Taylor had nothing to do with her leaving the Big Brother house.
Paloma's Statements About Taylor
In a statement to Us Weekly, Paloma said that she left Big Brother, not because of Taylor, but because $750,000 was not worth the negative impact on her mental health. She continued, "It’s crazy how people jump to conclusions with the whole racist bit — Taylor and I are actually good friends so please keep hyping her up! She’s a QUEEN." She explained that she and Taylor had actually become very close friends toward the end of her time in the Big Brother house, but the show "cut the beginning clips and ran with it." Paloma reminded viewers that "reality tv isn’t always real. I’m always rooting for boss babes, never going to try and tear a strong woman down and I was extremely straight up with her the first days when we didn’t mesh." Then, she went on to say that Taylor "didn’t try to ally with any of the girls and unfortunately our convo about that wasn’t aired. … Only love for this girl. I can’t wait for her to come out so we can talk about it as two strong women." In an Instagram post, Paloma reiterated some of these sentiments as well. Therefore, BB contestant Daniel's strong assertion that Taylor is the reason that Paloma left is wrong.
Other Houseguests' Reactions To Daniel's Outburst
Many of Daniel's fellow Big Brother houseguests disagreed with what he said and did. Ameerah tried to tell Daniel that she did not think that Taylor meant what she said, "ill-intently." However, he said, "it doesn't matter." In her Diary Room session, Ameerah said that, although she loves Daniel so much, she did not agree with him throwing Paloma's name out, because they did not actually know "what went wrong" with her. Also, it didn't really need to be a public argument. A devastated Taylor cried in the Diary Room, and then tried to speak to Nicole, who called her "passive aggressive" and "rude." She laced into her until Taylor apologized, but most of the other houseguests thought that she had done nothing wrong.
An upset Joseph Abdin said in his Diary Room session that he had never once witnessed Taylor being disrespectful to anyone in the house, and he felt bad because she did not deserve what Daniel and Nicole did to her. In her Diary Room session, Taylor cried that she never tried to hurt Nicole, Paloma, or any of the women in the house. This exchange between Taylor and Daniel was one of the factors that led to the creation of the new seven-person alliance, The Leftovers, made up of Big Brother houseguests Taylor, Turner, Joseph, Kyle Capener, Monte Taylor, Brittany Hoopes, and Michael Bruner. The Big Brother celebs feel that they were excluded from the main alliances, and have come together in order to shift the target away from Taylor, to focus on blindsiding those who have dominated the Big Brother house so far, including Ameerah.
The exchange between Big Brother stars Daniel and Taylor was hard to watch, especially since viewers knew that Taylor meant no harm to Nicole. Fans who know about Paloma's statement also knew that Daniel was completely wrong during his tirade. Although the Big Brother house is stressful, there is never an excuse to degrade or gaslight anyone. Daniel said that America is watching, and he is right. Unfortunately for him, his statement will work against him when he finds out that America knows the truth about what is happening in the Big Brother 24 house.
Big Brother airs Sundays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EDT and Thursdays at 9 p.m. EDT on CBS.
Sources: Us Weekly, Paloma Aguilar/Instagram, Abuelski/YouTube