Big Brother runner-up Makensy Manbeck is getting tired of being asked why she took Chelsie Baham to the Final 2 instead of Cam Sullivan-Brown, and she said fans just need to "deal with it."
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During Big Brother's Season 26 finale on Sunday, Makensy, a 22-year-old construction project manager from Houston, TX, won the final Head of Household competition and decided to evict Cam.
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Makensy therefore took Chelsie, a 27-year-old nonprofit director from Rancho Cucamonga, CA, to the Final 2, and Chelsie ended up defeating her pal in a unanimous 7-0 jury vote.
Makensy has said in multiple interviews she's proud of herself for advancing Chelsie and for playing a game of respect and loyalty -- but she's faced a lot of backlash for making a terrible decision.
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"I would really do it again, because I still had hope in myself. I didn't think I was going to lose, or at least as bad as I did, 7 to 0," Makensy told Entertainment Weekly.
"But I was confident in my own game. I was confident that I did play an amazing game. I survived a lot in that house and I proved myself every week. And if people on the jury didn't see that and didn't want to commend my game, then so be it. They can commend hers."
Makensy, however, shared how it's been "difficult" and frustrating to constantly field questions about her $750,000 mistake during a separate interview with the New York Post.
"It is difficult to continually get that and to continually have to explain to everyone that I don't regret my decision, that I am happy with the outcome and that nobody will understand it truly unless you are in my position," Makensy said.
"I can say whatever I want, however many times in whatever way, and people will still judge me on it and not get it."
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But Makensy said that's "totally okay" and she's not setting out to change the public opinion.
"They don't have to understand it or like it because they weren't there to make it and they don't get to know the experience of why," Makensy explained.
At the end of the day, Makensy boasted about how she "stayed true" to herself and her strategy on Big Brother.
"It's a true testament to who I am, the player I was, and just the person I will be outside of this house and what I wanted to be highlighted," Makensy noted.
"And yeah, I am tired of getting that question, but am I aware that that is a question that will continue to be asked? Probably for years down the line. Like, 'You remember when you chose Chelsie? Why'd you do that?'"
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Makensy quipped in reply to those future trolls, "You know, because I could and because I wanted to."
Makensy added, "I don't have to explain it all the time. Deal with it."
Makensy and Chelsie were allies and close friends during the Big Brother game. They had conspired with each other and worked to save one another multiple times.
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Makensy and Chelsie therefore believed they were both deserving to sit in those Final 2 seats, but the jury ultimately decided Chelsie was the mastermind behind most of the pair's moves.
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"We were both two great people, two great players, and both deserved to win," Makensy shared.
"And [Chelsie] did an amazing job and she won. And I'm incredibly proud of her. And you know what? I will stick to that because I chose her to be there. I knew she could beat me and I wasn't afraid of that."
Makensy apparently spoke to Quinn Martin after the Big Brother finale and asked why she had received zero jury votes to win the game.
After all, Makensy was a competition beast all season long and repeatedly survived the chopping block.
"I did chat with Quinn just very briefly, and it was more or less the fact that they believed that Chelsie was a master manipulator and used me a lot and that I was naive to that," Makensy explained of Chelsie's victory.
"Again, people will only know what they're told. And Chelsie did a great job of painting that picture, a great job in her jury questions. And I did a horrible job of painting the fact that that is not true."
But at the same time, Makensy said she's the only person who can fully understand what was in her mind and her heart at the time.
Makensy said she knows why she made the decisions she did, and she's "okay" with that.
"I don't need other people's validation and votes to show me and make me think that I played a good game because all I know and all I have is myself and my own thoughts. I know that I played a good game," Makensy told the New York Post.
Chelsie, for instance, had taken the credit for evicting Makensy's friend Leah Peters from the house.
"I think that she did believe that. And maybe that was because we were so close personally that she feels like I would not have made that decision without her influence," Makensy said.
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"I wasn't upset with the fact that she tried to claim that. I was upset with the fact that in that moment when I looked back, I can see how that was viewed. But it does paint a picture of that Chelsie made that move."
Makensy insisted, however, that nobody could have made her do anything in the game.
"Nobody was in my brain or heart. Did I talk about it with Chelsie? Yes, because guess who I was working with? Chelsie. So I'm going to listen to her. Absolutely. Because I wasn't playing just for myself," Makensy reasoned.
"I was playing for both of us to get to the end. And that's exactly what I did, is I got both of us to the end. And if she wants to take claim to that, so be it. We can see it in different ways. Agree to disagree."
Chelsie received all seven jury votes to win from previously-evicted Big Brother players Quinn, Angela Murray, Kimo Apaka, Leah Peters, T'kor Clottey, and Rubina Bernabe.
Makensy therefore claimed $75,000 as the runner-up.
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In addition, Tucker Des Lauriers was named "America's Favorite Houseguest" and received $50,000 as a result. In addition to Tucker, the other houseguests in the running for the honor were Angela and Quinn.
Tucker made Big Brother history because this marked the first time a non-finalist and non-juror was voted "America's Favorite Houseguest."