Big Brother's Tully explains why Taras targeted her: 'Smiling assassin'

Big Brother Royalty vs New Blood said goodbye to fan-favourite Tully Smyth tonight, in a huge move orchestrated by newbie Taras Hrubyj-Piper.

When the star was approached to do Big Brother again, she didn't hesitate to say yes. The super-fan has watched every single season, and she jumped at the chance to be part of Big Brother's 21st birthday celebration.

Tully also admits that part of her wanted a ‘redemption’, to show Australia that she was ‘more than a silly mistake’ made when she was 25 years old. The influencer opened up to Yahoo Lifestyle about why Taras attacked her, the moment she knew she had been ‘betrayed’ and why she technically outlasted her ex, Anthony Drew.

‘Smiling assassin’

Viewers were shocked when Taras decided to firmly place a target on Tully’s back, starting by accusing her of being ‘selfish’ in front of the other housemates for taking too many drinks.

Tully admits that she always knew that Taras was a ‘smiling assassin’, describing him as a ‘triple threat’ — a strong frontrunner with his strategic, physical and social game.

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She thinks that Taras ‘had a go’ at her about the drinks because he was ‘hurt’ after she didn’t vote him as Head of House, noting that the pair had always gotten along ‘really well’. She explains that Taras didn't nominate himself for the role, so Tully backed Jaycee instead.

In an interesting twist, Tully tells us that Taras actually didn’t drink alcohol, and she was the one who would always make sure he received a soft drink.

“For him to suddenly come at me about having too many drinks, it came out of nowhere…he’s quite cutting, it’s not very nice,” she remembers, “Everyone seems a bit awkward about it.”

Taras mentioned in the diary room that he was getting too much attention for being a threat and “flying under the radar”, so he decided that Tully needed to go next.

‘Betrayed’

Although Taras made his biggest move yet by nominating his friend Johnson Ashak, Drew and Tully, the star still said she believed she was safe, relying on her strong social game to carry her through.

She walked into the eviction room thinking she had Tim, Drew, Estelle, Gabbie and Reggie, totalling six votes on Johnson including hers. In the end, only Estelle and Gabbie had her back. After host Sonia Kruger started talking gameplay with the housemates, Tully soon realised what was about to unfold.

“As things were unravelling, and I was looking at people’s eyes and they were avoiding my eye contact, I was like, oh no. I think I have it wrong here. I think I’m being betrayed, I think I’m being blindsided,” she says.

After Taras had sworn to Tully that she was safe that morning, and also shook Drew’s hand at the nomination challenge promising not to put him up for eviction, she wasn’t prepared to go quietly.

Viewers saw Tully clearly mouth “If I go, come for him. Straight for the head,” and she said this was her trying to cause chaos in the house.

“I thought, if I’m gonna go down, I’m not going down without a fight. I’m going to blow Taras’ game up because up until that point, people were still trusting him.

“I just wanted people to know, he’s playing a great game and power to him, but he will lie to your face and have no qualms doing it. So do not trust him. I’m mouthing to Gabbie and I’m mouthing to Estelle, come for the head…if I go tonight, you come and you get him as revenge,” she explains.

‘Loyal Labrador puppy’

The influencer is the first to admit that she did too many favours for her ex, Drew, and jokes that she acted like a “loyal Labrador puppy”.

The star helped Drew out of a tight spot multiple times, saving his new girlfriend Sam Monovoski and even Drew himself, but this was the first episode that Tully had asked for anything in return.

“I was like, ‘Look, get rid of me, that’s fine. Come for me at a later date but please let me get to the top 10. Like bare minimum, I’ve done you that many favours’,” she recalls.

In the end, Drew even convinced Reggie to vote for him so she wouldn’t have to vote Tully or Johnson out, which was a strategic move on his part. Drew knew that Tully needed six votes on Johnson if she was going to stay, and she acknowledges that he “stabbed [her] in the back.”

One of Tully’s goals was to outlast Drew, and while he’s still in the Big Brother house, she believes she still achieved it.

“Let’s be real. I did get him out first, like technically I saw him go. We waved goodbye, he was gone for three days and those three days were heaven,” she laughs.

“I still accomplished what I wanted to accomplish.”

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