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Hannah's not mad at Azah for sending her home on Big Brother , but says it wasn't 'the smartest thing'

Lynette Rice
·4 min read
Hannah's not mad at Azah for sending her home on Big Brother , but says it wasn't 'the smartest thing'

Hannah Chaddha doesn't have much faith that the first Black woman will win season 23 of Big Brother. But she's not bitter that Azah Awasum put her and not one of the three male members of the Cookout on the block. Here, the 21-year-old graduate student from Chicago talks about the accomplishments of the Cookout and why she thinks Derek didn't need to lie in those final moments of her game.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY What did Derek Frazier say to you at that moment before the vote, before your speech?

HANNAH CHADDHA: He was basically saying that he's okay with going home. We know where his stuff is located in the house, so we can pack that up for him. It's been a pleasure knowing all of us! He was essentially acting like he was going home, but the fact that he wasn't campaigning after Kyland took X off the block told me everything that I needed to know. It let me know that Derek F. is very comfortable in the house and did not mind being on the block in the final five. That just kind of solidified the possibility of the guys working together. I don't think Ky and X were ever going to keep me, especially not Ky. So I just wish that Derek F. would have been a little more candid with me. Like, 'I'm so sorry, but this is what we have to do' instead of acting like he was going home when he knew that he wasn't.

Big Brother
Big Brother

CBS Hannah Chaddha on 'Big Brother'

Are you angry with Azah?

I'm not angry with Azah at all. I don't have any bitterness toward the four people who are left in that house. I don't believe that Azah using her HOH as an opportunity to send me home was the smartest thing for her game. I think that she should have taken a shot at Kyland or Xavier because I don't think she's going to be brought to the final two by any of those guys. It wasn't the most rational and prudent game move. But I can't be mad at her for it. I just think that you know, she's going to follow me real soon.

Tiffany thought her decision to not throw that one HOH competition — the one Kyland was supposed to win — is what prompted everyone to evict her. Do you agree?

Maybe Tiffany deciding to win that second HOH comp made it easier for people to evict her, but I think their plan was always to evict her at number six. Tiffany is a strong competitor. She's very intelligent. She was kind of the lead strategist of the Cookout. I'm going to give her that credit and that accolade because she deserves it. She came up with the master plan and truth be told, I don't think anyone wanted to sit next to her in the final two. So I think Tiffany was always supposed to go first and then me and then that would leave the guys in the final three. I think they used her second HOH as kind of a crutch to justify that.

The Cookout talked amongst themselves about the history they were making. Do you think the other houseguests were completely clueless to what was unfolding under their eyes or were there many candid discussions about race and previous inequality in the Big Brother house?

I'm not sure if we had too many conversations surrounding race and other forms of social inequality in the house. I definitely think that the other houseguests knew that there was something that they were missing, but maybe they didn't have the tools or the words to express what that was. We did kind of use that to our advantage because maybe they assumed that the six of us were working together, but if they couldn't express that explicitly to each other, then there was really nothing they could do. The Cookout tried not to draw attention to ourselves and what bonds us, which is our Blackness. It is something that I'm very proud of, but again, we went out of our way to kind of keep the scent off of us. Like for example, whenever I would walk into a room, if there were more than two Cookout members in that room, I would leave. Toward the end, that was a little harder to avoid. But we did try to be conscientious about drawing too much attention to ourselves.

Do you think there's a possible path for Azah to win this game?

In order for Azah to win this game, she would have to win out her way to the final two. If she's able to do that, then mad props to her. But Kyland, X, and even big D are all very fierce competitors. So I don't really see that happening for Azah. I believe that Azah has a final three with Xavier and big D, but I do believe that Kyland Xavier and big D are more committed to each other than they are to her. So I suspect that Azah is going to follow me to the jury pretty soon.

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