Last Wednesday, CBS kicked off the nineteenth season of its highly-acclaimed version of reality TV show Big Brother. Houseguests like Christmas Abbott, a fitness superstar; Dominique Cooper, a government engineer; Paul Abrahamian, a clothing designer who is coming back after being the runner-up in season 18; Josh Martinez, from Florida; and Megan Lowder, a dog walker, have been chosen to compete for a prize of half a million dollars.
The premiere episode was one of a kind — the new temptation twist, which will be the theme of the season, gave Kevin 25 thousand dollars, let Paul back into the house, and got superfan Cameron evicted only after a few hours of living in the house. With the question of what would happen next, viewers were left eager for more, as they had to wait until Thursday for another episode.
On Thursday, we saw Josh Martinez’s meltdown when he thought Megan was gunning for him. He had a big argument with her, which is not a rare thing in Big Brother, and he accused her of being a snake and not trustworthy, to her surprise. When the episode ended, the current Head of Household Cody Nickson nominated Megan and her ally, Jillian.
When the live feeds were turned on for the first time this season, fans realized that Megan was not in the house and after a brief explanation by some houseguests that were talking to each other, it was evident that she had self-evicted. This is a very unique situation because it is not common for contestants to abandon the house on their own. Former participants like Dick Donato (in Season 13) had to leave because of medical issues, and others like Chima Simone were expelled due to their behavior. In Season 17, Audrey Middleton stayed in the Diary Room for five hours and ultimately did not quit, and fans initially thought something similar happened with Megan.
Megan's memory wall photo is black and white. She is gone #BB19 pic.twitter.com/g9WtKAzkzF
— Big Brother Daily (@BB_Updates) June 30, 2017
Raven- She (Megan) just walked out because she couldnt handle it and got caught up in her own lies. That's Big Brother #BB19
— Big Brother Daily (@BB_Updates) June 30, 2017
When they found out about the self-eviction many fans felt sad, confused and outraged, some asking production to bring back Cameron after his dream of playing the game had been taken away on the first night.
On Friday night, The Desert Sun released their interview with Megan Lowder, where she explained the real reason that made her leave the house.
When I was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, I was sexually assaulted and I got really bad PTSD from it,” said the former Navy criminal investigator “So in the house… I had a lot of guys yelling at me and attacking me and it started really affecting me and making my anxiety severe and I was starting to get physically ill. I was throwing up, I had diarrhea, I was nauseous all the time.”
Rumors that Lowder had created a fake rumor in the house about Jessica Graf calling her housemate Alex Ow, who is an Asian-American, “panda” spread quickly, and some said that she left the game because she got caught in all her lies. Regarding to these allegations, she said “I could have heard wrong, it’s entirely possible, but I was already talking to them about wanting to leave before that and so at that point I knew I couldn’t handle it anymore and I went into the Diary Room where I started having a panic attack and they wound up taking me to the hospital a couple hours later”. She also mentioned that it was a mutual decision from her and CBS to get her out of the house, as she had to spend a couple of days in the hospital after that. We will have to see how the show handles the situation in the next episode.
Sexual assault and PTSD are two very serious things and it not possible nor correct to judge a person who has struggled with them’s decisions. We do not choose what triggers us. Megan quickly received the support of the fans and expressed how thankful she was. She is now rooting for her housemates and commenting the season from her home in social media.
I can't even understand the support going on right now. I love you all and I am sorry for leaving the show. You are all amazing.
— Megan Lowder 🌮 (@MeganAnnBB19) July 1, 2017
If anyone is a victim of sexual assault and needs someone to talk to please call the nation sexual assault hotline: 8006564673.
— Megan Lowder 🌮 (@MeganAnnBB19) July 1, 2017
