‘Big Brother’s Vince Panaro Addresses Morgan Pope ‘Cheatmance’ Scandal: ‘Lines Started to Blur’
Big Brother star Vince Panaro is finally speaking out post-finale and revealing his relationship status with his pre-show girlfriend, Kelsey, after his alleged “cheatmance.” This update comes just days after the Season 27 star removed all photos of Kelsey from his Instagram feed.
In a YouTube video posted in the early hours of October 20 titled “Post Big Brother 27 Thoughts,” Vince told viewers, “I cared more about winning that game than anything in my life,” which caused him to put his fear of getting eliminated over his relationships outside of the house. He shared, “I never wanted to embarrass anyone, not my girlfriend, not my family, not myself, of course. But definitely not Kelsey because she didn’t sign up for the show, I did.”
When discussing his time in the Big Brother house, the superfan revealed that he would look back on it as a “strange, indescribably unique environment.” As he put it, “Lines started to blur. Any level of affection was normal in that alternate reality I was living in.” Now that he’s outside of the house, he can see it from the perspective of the viewers, “In hindsight, can I see how that’s disrespectful to having a girlfriend? Yes, 100%, and I’m sorry for that. And to be honest, like, that’s on me 100,000%.” Why? Calling back to Kelsey’s original comment about their pre-established boundaries, Vince revealed for the first time, “I’m the one who set the boundaries.”
As for what he is well aware that fans have called “emotional cheating” with Morgan Pope in the Big Brother house, he admitted, “I needed that level of comfort. I had somebody in the house who was providing me with that… I was just seeking that, and I needed it, and that’s all I can say.”
Finally, Vince addressed the one question everyone has been asking since finale night: Are he and Kelsey still together? He revealed, “Kelsey and I have talked everything out. We have talked about everything and anything possible.” However, he confirmed that at this time they have separated. As he put it, “We are currently taking time to process everything individually, and you know, figure out what things look like after that.”
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Clearly still showing admiration for his longtime girlfriend, he took fans back to finale night, confirming that Kelsey was the first person he reunited with once he exited the house. “Something I appreciate about her,” he told viewers, “is that she had the respect for me to be the first person that I see when I leave finale night and to stick around and have those conversations with me, when she could have left and could have never spoken to me again.” He continued, “She was there to first, above everything else, make sure that I was okay mentally coming out of there, knowing the backlash that I was going to be receiving.”
In the end, Vince made it clear that he respects Kelsey’s decision to “process her own experience individually.” Taking full responsibility for his actions, he confessed, “It wouldn’t matter whether we were on the verge of breaking up before we were going into that house, or we were on the verge of getting engaged, the fact of the matter is, I was in a relationship entering that house, anything that anyone else, you know, however they reacted towards me is because I welcomed it.”
Big Brother, Season 27, Streaming Now, Paramount+
