Just pals! Big Brother 21 star Kat Dunn says that she and fellow houseguest Nick Maccarone are just friends despite their flirty behavior in the jury house.
Fans were surprised to learn that Kat, 29, and Nick, 27, had gotten close in the jury house after their evictions — especially because Nick was in a showmance with housemate Bella Wang.
“If you watched the show, you know that he was not my favorite person in the house and especially during the week I got evicted, but looking back I see that I had a lot of preconceived opinions about his gameplay that I let affect my opinions on him as a person,” the digital marketing executive, 29, exclusively tells Us Weekly. “The Nick I got to know in the jury house is an incredible person and friend.”
When she was on the block against her alliance member Cliff Hogg, Nick, 27, offered him a deal to start an alliance with him, Nicole Anthony, Tommy Bracco, Christie Murphy and Analyse Talavera. When Nicole, 24, and Cliff, 53, accepted the deal, Kat felt as if the pair were playing Nick’s game.
However, all was forgiven when she reconnected with the therapist in the jury house. “He wiped my tears away when I was crying and calmed me down while I was stressed,” she recalls. “Our relationship in the jury house wasn’t based on cheap sexual gratification — it was an actual, genuine friendship.”
Kat made it clear that during their jury segments there was “absolutely no hooking up happening.” She also wanted to be considerate of his past relationship with Bella, 22, but noted that the public health analyst had already ended their showmance on social media. Prior to his relationship with Kat, Nick’s showmance with Bella appeared to be for the long haul. Bella taught Nick Mandarin and the former couple said they loved each other several times.
“I would not have disrespected Bella by kissing Nick or doing anything inappropriate on camera,” Kat says. “But with that being said, keep in mind that Bella already broke up with Nick over Twitter while he was away in the house. I understand she was embarrassed that the idea of Nick having feelings for somebody else was publicly aired on the show, but she had clearly moved on before any sort of drama was revealed about us.”
The pair have spent time together since the season wrapped last month. The two went to Las Vegas with the rest of the Big Brother cast and then spent a few days together in Los Angeles before he headed back home to New Jersey. Nick will also visit Kat in Dallas where they will attend a Dallas Cowboys game together. “I’m excited to see him again, especially now that everything is kind of slowing down from the show,” she tells Us.
Kat found herself in the middle of another love triangle earlier in the season. First, she was in a showmance with Jackson Michie — before he got together with Holly Allen and eventually was crowned winner of the season. Michie, 24, explained on the podcast “Now What With Jessica Graf” in September that he split with Kat over her emotional gameplay.
“The way she was handling the block and everything like that, and she was up and down, and like a rollercoaster of emotions, I realized, ‘Wow, this is not good for my game,’” he said at the time.
With reporting by Kayley Stumpe
