Big Brother 25’s Hisam Goueli is shedding some light on his rocky relationship with fellow houseguest Cory Wurtenberger.
Earlier this month, Hisam, 45, was captured on the live feeds saying that he kept calling Cory, 21, “Cody” by mistake because, “subconsciously I hate him.” The pair were not aligned in the house and Cory helped ensure Hisam was evicted during the Thursday, August 24, episode of the CBS series.
After his unanimous eviction, Hisam exclusively spoke to Us Weekly about why he and Cory got off on the wrong foot.
“I looked at Cory [early in the game] and I said, ‘We might be able to work together.’ … And Cory said, ‘I’m so glad you brought this conversation up because I would love that,” Hisam recalled.
Hisam Goueli, Cory Wurtenberger Sonja Flemming/CBS(2)
“And then, in 12 hours or so, the energy had shifted and I felt that immediately. And I couldn’t figure out exactly why. And then I found out that he was obviously in an alliance that did not include me,” he continued, referring to Cory’s Handful alliance, which included contestants Reilly Smedley, Jag Bains, Matt Klotz, Cameron Hardin, Blue Kim, Jared Fields and America Lopez.
Hisam noted that although he “tried to repair” things with Cory, he “just felt there was a dishonest or [disingenuous] component to him.”
Hisam and Cory were both present when houseguest Luke Valentine used the N-word during a conversation captured on the live feeds earlier this month. Luke, 30, was later expelled from the game for using the racial slur.
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When the houseguests learned that Luke had been removed, Cory came forward and admitted that he’d been present for the incident in question. Hisam, however, said that he didn’t hear Luke say the offensive remark.
“I never heard it. … If I had heard the word, I would’ve responded. I am not complicit in racism, in any stretch of the imagination,” he told Us, adding that he “didn’t assume anything had happened” because Cory “didn’t mention anything” after they both left the room. “Had I heard the word, I would’ve said something because I’m not complicit in that kind of behavior.”
Cory wasn’t the only houseguest that Hisam had friction with. His Professors alliance members — including Felicia Cannon, Cirie Fields and Izzy Gleicher — conspired to nominate him for eviction after his tendency to dominate conversation began to rub them the wrong way.
The alliance decided to employ the infamous backdoor strategy on him by waiting to nominate him until the Veto Competition had been played so he didn’t get a chance to compete for his safety.
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“I went into the game with the expectation that I would not backdoor anyone. And that was really important to me. And I did set that expectation early so that hopefully people would honorably not do that to me,” Hisam told Us. “But it is a game move.”
Although all of Hisam’s allies betrayed him, he’s still rooting for one person from the Professors to win: Mecole Hayes.
“I do really like Meme. I think she’s really lovely,” he said. “I think she’s poised, I think she’s sophisticated, I think that she’s smart, I think that she has a good story. I love Meme quite a bit and I would be thrilled if she was the season 25 winner.”
Big Brother airs on CBS Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
