Goodness, the Big Brother reboot is certainly rebooting this time around (sorry Channel 5, yours just wasn't the one). That's down to a handful of factors, but it's DEFINITELY down to Big Brother giving absolutely zero sh*ts (Jenkin's suitcase exploding will live forever in our heads rent free, as will Big Brother dangling Matty's digital boyfriend in front of him in the name of evening entertainment) and, of course, the housemates.
One of those housemates was the somewhat controversial Paul Blackburn - the 23-year-old security guard who refused to wear a shirt in the house (we had no issue with this tbh) and came to blows with the likes of Trish Balusa and Noky Simbani in his final few days.
One of the biggest storylines of Big Brother 2023 has revolved around the love triangle that is Paul, Paul's IRL girlfriend Grace and fellow housemate Olivia Young. Despite Paul and Olivia stressing they are just friends, that hasn't stopped social media from raising an eyebrow and speculating (HARD).
Since Paul was evicted last Friday, he's been clearing things up with the press and Big Brother fans, stressing not only that he and Olivia would "never touch touch each other", but how Big Brother producers actively went out of their way to push the false narrative by limiting mentions of Paul's girlfriend.
Paul told heatworld, "In that house, I knew in the back of my mind that me and my girlfriend are very secure in our relationship. She’s got boy friends – she’s literally got a boy friend that lives next door to her. I’ve got girl friends – my girlfriend is mates with my best girl friend, so we have different people from different genders in our life. You can’t just avoid other genders because you’re with someone. You’ve got to have a laugh with people and have a joke."
Regarding his platonic relationship with Olivia, Paul stressed, "Glaswegians and Scousers have always had similar banter, so we were always going to get on. She likes to go to the gym, she likes to have a laugh, she’s a lot like me and she got involved with the banter.
"[The relationship] just got pushed completely different to the way it was. Even when it comes down to when everyone got the picture [of their loved ones], and I didn’t; I was in the diary room crying my eyes out asking for the picture, that never got shown. And when I was in bed with my girlfriend’s teddy bear, none of that got aired."
He's right, we NEVER saw this - in fact, we barely heard Paul talk about girlfriend in the house.
He continued, "[The relationship with Olivia] was massively misinterpreted. I feel like the narrative of me and her got pushed from the get go.
"But me and Olivia made it quite clear that we would never touch each other. We’d never go near each other. We’re just friends – there was nothing to it."
As Paul has been sharing Instagram stories of him and his girlfriend this week, we're guessing she whole heartedly agrees with his sentiments.
Saying that, Zak Srakaew thought he saw a spark between the pair, and Olivia's pal Kerry Riches had some thoughts on the relationship, too. Hmm.
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Ben Pulsford is a Digital Writer for heatworld and a London-based drag queen called Beary Poppins. He has been a Big Brother fan since before many heatworld readers were even born and still compares all confrontations in all areas of his life to the infamous Fight Night of 2004. It's, thankfully, rarely beaten.