Big Brother houseguests Taylor Hale and Joseph Abdin have shared an update on their post-show relationship, with Taylor admitting she's "not gonna let go" of her "loverboy lawyer."
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Taylor said on The Talk that she planned to leave her brief showmance with Big Brother runner-up Monte Taylor in the Big Brother house, and she called Joseph "loverboy" material on "The Winners Circle" podcast.
And Taylor and Joseph, who fans affectionately call #Jaylor now, appear to have been spending a lot of time together since Big Brother 24 ended on Sunday night based on their recent social-media activity.
"We're having fun," Taylor gushed to Us Weekly in a joint interview with Joseph.
"We're making sure we're taking care of ourselves, but yeah, I'm not gonna let go of Joseph anytime soon."
However, Taylor and Joseph apparently aren't ready to put a label on their relationship. They said they have a lot of catching up to do, especially since they had been torn apart by Joseph's Day 51 eviction, after which he was sent to the jury house and Taylor's Big Brother game resumed.
"We spent a lot of time apart, like, literal weeks apart and in those weeks, I had a lot of people messing with my head trying to make me doubt any friendship [or] relationship with Joseph," Taylor explained.
Once Joseph was out of the house, Kyle Capener -- trying to save himself and his showmance partner Alyssa Snider -- attempted to convince Taylor that Joseph had betrayed her and thrown their alliance under the bus, when it was really Kyle himself who had done that.
Taylor appeared to give up on Joseph as a romantic partner after she was falsely told he had betrayed "The Leftovers" alliance and sealed his own elimination fate by blurting out secrets.
Taylor ended up having a brief showmance with Monte, but she eventually realized -- after the finale -- that Joseph never stopped trying to protect her in the game.
"And I'm still trying to work through that. And then there's just the nature of being in the game for so long and being separated from the people that can support you and love you," Taylor said.
RELATED LINK: 'BIG BROTHER' SHOWMANCES NOW"So, walking out, I need to make sure that I'm taking care of myself first and that I have my own stability, my own head on straight. I don't want to be too dependent on Joseph to help me through that."
Taylor called Joseph "literally the best support system ever."
"Everybody saw that in the game and getting it back is the best thing in the world. But I don't wanna jump into a relationship, almost trauma-bonding with someone," Taylor explained.
"I just want to make sure that I have my head straight. He's good. And then we can really work on exploring."
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Taylor said she and Joseph have been having a blast clowning around with Big Brother fans, but Joseph pointed out how the pair still has "so much... to process."
"We've been away from each other for so long and kind of getting the full picture, even until today as we start to talk and piece things together, we're still kind of seeing how things played out and why they played out the way they did," Joseph reiterated.
"So we are truly just taking everything day by day. We do just naturally love and enjoy each other's company. So we won't allow any pressure or anything to force something."
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"We're just going day by day and enjoying things, and getting a full picture, decompressing the whole situation. It's been such a unique and great experience, but regardless, you know, we still have each other," Joseph said.
"We have the time. And I told her this before, 'This time I won't disappear to the yard.'"
Joseph was referring to the "Big Brochella" and "Dyre Fest" twist that separated Joseph from Taylor for days and led to Joseph's eviction. Joseph had to play the game in the backyard while Taylor was in the house, and Joseph wasn't even able to say goodbye to Taylor once half the Big Brother house evicted him.
"And we do have that luxury, so there's no reason to rush it. There's no reason to overload or overstimulate. Let's just take it slow. Especially for Taylor, she was in the house longer. She won. She had a lot more that she was facing with, so a slow and steady pace is how we're kind of going with this," Joseph shared.
Taylor admitted early in the Big Brother game that Joseph was her "crush," and Joseph was apparently attracted to the beauty pageant queen right away.
"I kind of saw Taylor a little bit right before we walked in. So she always stayed on my radar in that aspect. I was like, 'God damn.' So even on premiere night, when I walked in, the first thing -- which I just, like, hours ago find out I'm coming on the show -- I'm like, 'Where'd that girl go?'" Joseph recalled.
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And Taylor remembered there was "something really warm and inviting about Joseph" when she met him.
The Michigan native said, "It was really hard that first few weeks of the house. I could not walk to a room without people just stopping a conversation, changing a conversation. I felt like my fate was sealed every single day and my best friend was my bed."
Taylor dealt with bullying in the game and often, as a result, felt isolated and unwanted.
"And I'm an introvert on top of all of that. But Joseph, no matter whether I was forced or needed to be in a corner, [he] would always just check on me and be like, 'Hey, what's going on?' And for someone to even care or feign like they could care, even a pinky amount about how I was doing, it was very, very difficult in that house," Taylor told Us.
"And Joseph was willing to be a friend to someone that everyone was painting out to be the most disgusting villain."
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"For me personally, I think Taylor's hilarious. She is an introvert and so she does like to be alone, but when she would come out of her shell here and there, I was like, 'Okay, you can't be funny and run away. I love to laugh so get back here,'" Joseph gushed.
"For me, it was definitely humor. I can definitely come off, like, I love to joke. Sometimes I have to just step back, let people have their space. So that was like a fine balance. I was trying to navigate with her initially because I wasn't too sure. We're all strangers still trying to get to know each other."
And Joseph suggested he was reminded of his strong feelings for Taylor when she made her incredible speech on finale night, pitching to the jury that she deserved to win Big Brother due to her perseverance and resiliency.
"When she was making her speech, I was like, 'There you go, girl,'" said Joseph, who was clearly beaming and smiling ear to ear when Taylor spoke.
"That was the nail in the coffin. We're good. I was like, 'This should be unanimous.'"
Taylor won Big Brother in a landslide 8-1 jury vote over Monte. Matthew "Turner" Turner was the only person who cast a vote for Monte to win.
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Now that Big Brother is behind them, Taylor and Joseph said they'd absolutely love to compete on The Amazing Race together.
"This is clear," Taylor noted, with Joseph adding, "There would be nothing more fun but to travel and take this all over the place. That would be a dream come true."
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
