Big Brother Australia 2021 housemate Marley Biyendolo is a hot favourite to win, thanks to the integrity he has shown over the course of the game and the admirable work he does outside of the Big Brother house.
The charming semi-professional basketballer is now one step closer to that $250,000 prize money after being awarded the immunity eye by his fellow housemates. Biyendolo now has a significant advantage as the final days of the competition approach.
“With my whole alliance being decimated, I think they [his housemates] could truly appreciate and respect the game that I played this far,” he told The Latch.
“I’ve been an honest guy through and through this whole time, and I think that gained a lot of respect within this house and in this game, and I think people just kind of wanted to show and share that respect with me.”
It’s a gesture that he doesn’t take lightly, either, emphatically sharing that he appreciates it “with all my heart”.
For Biyendolo, his strategy from the get-go has been to be the man his mother — who sadly passed away four years ago — raised him to be. “I’m starting to get a little emotional, but I think why I am the way I am is because I’m thinking about how proud my mum would be of me,” he said.
Emotions also got the best of Biyendolo — and everyone else in the Big Brother house — when it was revealed that they would be treated to a phone call with their families, with whom they’d had little to no contact since entering the competition. According to Biyendolo, the calls were one of the game’s most crucial moments.
“Being a viewer you truly don’t understand — the mental strain that you go through within this game, you’re just mentally exhausted, and physically and emotionally drained,” he told The Latch.
“That’s why it’s such an emotional time when you do get to speak to a loved one from the outside world because you’re completely stripped from everything — you don’t even know the time inside this house.
“Going through such a stressful time without being able to lean on the people that you’ve been comfortable with your whole life is one of the hardest things to ever do mentally — I think one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do mentally, and I’ve been through some crazy experiences.”
Another mental challenge he has faced during his time on Big Brother is learning to go without life’s luxuries, an experiment that yielded interesting results.
“I was excited to not have my phone in that house,” he confessed.
“I absolutely loved it. You can survive without things like phones and TVs and things like that you really don’t need, what’s really important in life is your interactions with people and having real conversations with people.
“The biggest thing that Big Brother has taught me is that usually in the real world when you sit down with someone and you have a conversation, there’s always a point in the conversation, where you either get bored, lose interest or feel uncomfortable — especially with new people — so you go to your phone right away.
“But within this game, you have no other option, but to continue that conversation and continue to get to know them deeper, so you really connect with people. And I think in the outside world, we really don’t do that.”
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