'Big Brother 26's Kenney Kelley Said He "Had Doubts" About Playing Before the Game

Big Brother ’s house is open once more! Every week, Parade.com’s Mike Bloom will be bringing you interviews with this season's houseguests as they get evicted from the game.

If there was one motion to describe Big Brother 26 so far, it would be swinging. Just when the players think the house has settled into a formal structure, it gets shaken up like a recent earthquake. Loyalties have shifted, houseguests have been blindsided, and many, may conflicts have emerged. But Kenney Kelley was going through a similarly volatile series of events in his own head. It seemed like, every day, his mind would change as to whether or not he wanted to stay in the game. When it came to nominations, the third time was the charm for the Boston native, as he went out near-unanimously with his head surprisingly held high.

The season's oldest houseguest, Kenney came in with years being an undercover cop. And, similar to another boy in blue from Massacusetts, he hoped to repeat Derrick Levasseur's first-place finish. Though Kenney's body was still in the house, his head and heart seemed to still be back at home, as he almost immediately started to miss his family and question if he wanted to be in the game. His feelings compounded when he wound up on the block next to Matt Hardeman , his closest ally and the first person he told about his police work. Despite telling the houseguests on eviction night that he was fine to leave, Kenney was one of the few blindsided by Matt leaving instead. And, at least in the moment, he vowed to hit the "reset button," and promised vengeance on Matt's behalf. Kenney rode that momentum to a dominant veto win, but the euphoria was short-lived.

This past week was perhaps the most tumultuous for Kenney. After opening up to HoH Cedric Hodges , he once again asked to be put on the block, hoping he got evicted. Despite feeling like an outsider, though, he joined up with fellow Beantown boy Tucker Des Lauriers , feeding Cedric paranoia about a women's alliance. Then, however, he told Cedric that he wanted to win the veto to not use on himself, but Angela Murray , in the hopes of angering the rest of the house so much that they evict him. And while that shockingly ended up happening, it was in the hands of Tucker, kicking off a string of surprises that culminated in Makensy Manbeck using her "America's Veto" power. Though the fans put Quinn Martin on the block, the houseguests chose not to repeat history and evict the bigger threat. Despite the chaos of the week, they ended with (law and) order, as "Sweet Kenney K"'s game was as fully cooked as a food truck sausage.

Now out of the house, Kenney talks with Parade.com about what led to the many times he asked to leave the game, his reaction to the chaos of the veto meeting, and his assumption of there being a women's alliance.

Related: Everything to Know About Big Brother 26

First off, the reason you're talking with me right now is because of your family. Have you gotten the chance to talk with them yet?
Not yet, no.

How do you think they're reacting to everything that went down over the past few weeks?
I'm not quite sure, to be honest with you. I'm anticipating that they missed me as much as I miss them, and maybe even more. But I don't know if that's possible. I just can't wait to talk to her and see her face, and reiterate how much I love her and I missed her.

Well let's get into everything that happened during your time in the house. It was a chaotic week. And I'm not sure if you know, but there was even talk in the house of getting rid of Tucker over you if you were on the block together for the vote. Then you have the wildcard element of Quinn getting put up by America's Veto. So once the dust has settled from the AI Arena, were you making any pitches to the houseguests? I saw you whisper something in T'Kor's ear.
I really didn't get an opportunity to really bond with T'Kor. We always passed each other and she's so kind, and she's so sweet. She was definitely one of the nicest people in the house. They were all pretty nice, but she she was a special person. I'm not too sure what her story really is. There was a lot of speculation that she was a spy or something. [ Laughs .] But I just whispered to her that I hope she does well in the game. I told her to do the right thing for the game, and that I wish we had had an opportunity to become more friendly, and that might happen down the road.

Thinking about home was obviously a large part of your narrative this season. We came into the feeds a few days late. Did these feelings come in immediately, once the adrenaline of Night 1 settled down? Or was there an inciting incident behind you feeling that you wanted to be evicted?
Kind of even stepping off the plane, I had doubts. My eight-year-old was nervous about me going. She made it perfectly clear that she didn't want me to go. She was apprehensive to hug me when I left to get on the plane to California. So that always set with me. But once I got in the house, the first week was good. My plan was actually working out really good as far as how I wanted to go in the house. I wanted to go in the house and kind of align myself with somebody that I thought was going to be a good social player, who had a powerful game in competitions. And I felt as though Matt was going to be that person. And Matt actually approached me, and we had a real good conversation. He wanted to work with me, so my plan was to be able to kind of ride his coattails and pump him up and give him the encouragement and tell him how good he is. I think I did that too much, because he ended up talking to actually everybody in the house. [ Laughs .]

And my other plan was to try and connect with a younger player. And Cedric immediately reminded me of one of my sons, my oldest son, when he was probably that age, and it kind of helped with that connection. And I did bond very well with Cedric. But I think, after losing Matt and sitting next to him on the block and knowing that the house flipped like just as the competition was getting ready to start, that was difficult for me. Because I was like, "Oh, my plan's going so good. And now all of a sudden one week in, and I have to start from scratch."

To that point, it seemed from our perspective, you most wanted to leave during your down moments in the game, like when you were on the outside or you had lost a competition. But, when you did things like win a veto, or form the "Shake It Up" alliance with Cedric and Tucker, your head was back in the game and you wanted to play. What do you make of that assessment?
I think a lot of people don't realize the amount of downtime that's in the house. You go fast for three or four days between the HoH, veto, noms and things like that. So there's a lot of moving and shaking that's going on in that particular part of the game. And your mind is not on family and not on other things; it's on the actual game. But then, once you get out of the veto meeting, you get a lot of downtime, and you have a lot of time to think. And there were so many people in the house, there really wasn't a lot of places to scheme and talk. If you got together, you kind of would blow up your alliance. So you kind of tried to keep distance from people and not try and show all your cards during that time. And that made it difficult for me, because that's when I started thinking of all my family the most.

You talk about moods changing after the veto ceremony. And that happened in a very different way this past week, between Tucker shocking nearly everyone by using the veto on Angela, then Cedric surprising Tucker by nominating Makensy, who used her power. You were in the room both when Tucker suggested the plan to backdoor Quinn and when Cedric told Tucker that they didn't have the votes to go through with it. Give me your perspective on everything that went down.
Complete roller coaster of emotions. Although I appreciate the fact that Tucker wanted to do that to use the veto on Angela, I knew at that particular point in the game, it was a week too soon. We had just really started to bond with Cedric, Tucker and I, and we were trying to get a fourth person into the alliance, whether it was going to be Cam or not. So that was a roller coaster of emotions. And even in the backyard, were working out that morning, I said to Tucker, "You sure you want to do this?" And he was like, "I'm doing it. I'm doing it." And, obviously, I've known Tucker now for two weeks, very single day talking to him. You weren't changing Tucker's mind, no matter what. You could have told him that there was actually zero votes in the house for it, and Tucker wouldn't have changed his mind. But he really felt as though he could blow up Quinn's game.

And Quinn was, was definitely playing hard, and he had alliances with just about everybody in the house. And I was actually trying to get him into the "Shake It Up" crew in a low-key way. And he got me hook, line and sinker, when he was like, "Yes, let's do it." And the whole time he already had an alliance with Tucker. So that's kind of what blew it up, too. When I sat down with Tucker, and I told him I talked to Quinn, Tucker was like, "I'm already in alliance with him. I can't believe he's trying to now get an alliance with you." So that kind of threw Tucker for a loop, and I think that kind of egged him on a little bit more and why he wanted to do what he did.

One of the reasons why you formed this "Shake It Up" alliance is because you believed that there was a women's alliance in the house, led by Brooklyn. Talk to me about what made you come to that conclusion, and how you reacted when Brooklyn confronted you about it a few days ago.
Yeah, I'm really not a confrontational person by nature anyway. But when Chelsie became the HoH, definitely there was a lot going on in the HoH room. I situated my bed the whole entire game between the two other bedrooms in the kind of open area. And I would just lay there some nights and just obviously thinking about my family, things like that. But I was always listening to what was going on and what people are saying. And I overheard a lot of whispers, and it was always with the girls. It was never with the guys. And I definitely came to that assumption, and Brooklyn was a strong woman. I knew that there was always trying to be a girls alliance in seasons past, and they never could keep it together. And same thing with the guys; they could never keep it together for some strange reason. But I knew that Brooklyn was strong enough, and she was old enough that she could probably hold those girls together. And I know I was right. And even when we kind of confronted each other about it, she was so angry about it that, I'm like, "She's too angry about it. She should have just played it off a little better. That just solidified she had the alliance."

I mean, there was maybe a deal to look out for each other. But it definitely wasn't the strongest alliance in the game.
Yeah, I didn't think any of the alliances in the house were strong. And there were a lot of alliances. And it was odd to me that that was happening. Because obviously, as a fan of the show, alliances usually form fairly quickly, and they stay strong for a couple of weeks, and then they fizzle out, or they break up. And I just found it hard to believe that there wasn't at least a six or a seven person alliance in the house. But everybody kept denying it. But I knew of all these, the underdogs and a couple other ones. And I just found it hard to believe that there wasn't a bigger alliance. But I also knew that Makensy and Leah were kind of on the outs at the beginning, that they left them out of the flip on Matt, so they weren't too happy about that. So I knew it wasn't super strong, but I knew it was there.

To finish, give your rapid-fire thoughts on each of the remaining houseguests. Starting with Angela, who I know you have a complicated relationship with.
Emotional. Angela ended up being a very nice person. Her first HoH win, which I probably should have won, really spun her out of control. And I wasn't too happy about it, because I'm not that type of person who especially picks on people when they're not at their best. So I think her emotions were in the game different than mine. She's at a different point in her life than I am, but she didn't know how to control her emotions under pressure. And I think she went overboard where I kind of went underboard.
Brooklyn.
Tough.
Cam.
Great guy.
Cedric.
Unbelievable. [ Laughs .]
Chelsie.
Sweetheart.
Joseph.
[ Laughs .] We didn't really get along too good. But he was hilarious.
Kimo.
[ Pauses .] Good guy.
Leah.
Like my daughter. She's sweet.
Makensy .
Athletic.
Quinn .
He's a beast.
Rubina.
Ball of fire.
T'kor.
Kind.
And finally, Tucker.
Absolutely insane. [ Laughs .]

Next, check out our interview with Lisa Weintraub, who was evicted in Big Brother 26 Week 2 .