Big Brother 26’s Quinn Martin Reveals What Rubina Bernabe’s Shady Friendship Bracelet Said
By Sara Donnellan,
19 days ago
Big Brother fans had mixed reactions to Quinn Martin declining Rubina Bernabe ’s friendship bracelet moments after his eviction, but Quinn, 25, stands by his choice — especially after seeing what the bracelet said.
“It ended up saying ‘jury duty’ on it,” Quinn, who is the first juror of Big Brother 26 , exclusively told Us Weekly on Friday, September 13, one day after his elimination from the reality series. “So, it's like, we can be mad at me for originally rejecting the friendship bracelet, but she is dunking on me here, you know? Dancing on my grave.”
Quinn did ultimately accept the bracelet from Rubina, 35, after initially saying, “I don’t want it, thank you though.” Rubina was among the four houseguests who voted to evict Quinn during the Thursday, September 12, episode.
Quinn told Us that Rubina began trying to get his jury vote “like 20 minutes after I was put on the block” as a replacement nominee by Head of Household Chelsie Baham , so he wasn’t exactly charmed by her giving him a present on his way out.
“I’ll admit it, I was hurt in the moment, and I'm like, ‘Girl, get off me. Get outta here. You are crazy right now if you think I'm gonna accept a gift,’” he joked. “But [when] I heard the disappointment in her voice, of course I had to take it.”
Quinn said that although he and Rubina were “just two ships passing in the night” in the game — Rubina’s showmance partner, Tucker Des Lauriers , and Quinn openly targeted each other, and Quinn nominated Rubina for eviction during both of his HoH reigns — he appreciates her on a personal level.
“She was one of my favorite people in the house and someone who I looked to as an older sister. And so it was just like, ‘Alright, give me the friendship bracelet,’” he said. “My true feelings washed over me after hearing her disappointment, so I took it. And it ended up being her making fun of me, so I'm the sucker at the end of the day.”
Although Quinn was well-liked in the house, he made some pretty severe game mistakes, sending home close allies on both of his HoH reigns, first Cedric Hodges and then Joseph Rodriguez . The week Quinn named Joseph, 31, as a replacement nominee, he had several other options of people who would’ve been less loyal to him than Joseph.
“If I could go back in time and punch myself in the stomach right before that veto meeting [where I nominated Joseph], I would do it, and probably do it twice,” Quinn told Us . “I would save Joseph and put T’kor [ Clottey ] on the block.”
Quinn formed the Visionaries alliances with T’Kor, 23, and Kimo Apaka early in the game, choosing to fill them in on his involvement with the Pentagon alliance. Sharing the intel put a target on Quinn’s back after Kimo, 35, spilled the beans to Tucker, 30, who told the entire house.
Quinn told Us that he goes back and forth on whether he regrets trying to ride or die with T’Kor and Kimo given the fact that they ended up being far more loyal to each other and Rubina than they were to him.
“I don’t regret the decision because my logic was that there are certain types of players who are often overlooked and left out [from] power structures in the flow of the game. And I wanted to align with them because I saw so much of myself in them,” Quinn said of T’kor and Kimo. “I thought that I was in the same category and thought that by sharing so much information … it would act as a point of goodwill. … [But] at the first opportunity, they then prioritized Rubina over me. … And so in that aspect, I do regret it.”
While Quinn knows he made a lot of gaffes during his time on Big Brother 26 — “I suck at this game, dude,” he joked — he wouldn’t change his decision to rat out the Pentagon, which was comprised of himself, Brooklyn Rivera , Cam Sullivan-Brown , Chelsie, 27, and Cedric, 22.
“The logic of me wanting to flip on a majority alliance, I don't regret. That's not something I wanted to be a part of, narratively,” he said. “I knew I didn't wanna make it to jury with a majority alliance. What a predictable season. Heck no, that's not me. And that's why I was so willing to snake that information from the Pentagon to the Visionaries. Was it a miscalculation? Maybe, but how could I know that they wouldn't rock with me in the same way I was down to rock with them?
Big Brother airs on CBS Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 8 p.m. ET.
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