Big Brother’s mother hen Mary Kalifatidis has been officially booted from the competition in what was perhaps the most brutal eviction yet.
After fan-favourite housemate Marley placed Mary up for eviction, along with Christina and Ari, he was sure the chef would survive another day in the Big Brother house. The 56-year-old, however, knew her days were numbered.
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“I knew from the night before I was leaving,” Mary tells New Idea exclusively. “I’d already packed my stuff. My gut was telling me. When Sonia said ‘Mary, what do you think?’ I said, ‘Sonia, I know I’m being blindsided’.”
The mother of the house goes on to explain that it was one not-so-subtle housemate who raised her suspicions of a potential blindslide.
“I had Christina throwing me these comments left right and centre and I thought to myself, ‘Christina, honey, I can read past you. I’m 56 and that ain’t no Academy Award winning acting’.
“She was saying things like, ‘I can’t wait to go outside’, ‘I don’t care if I get evicted tonight’, ‘Everyone loves you, Mary’. And I’m thinking, ‘Sweetheart, what are you doing? I can see past that’.”
Upon her emotional exit, fans were stunned to see Mary give a not-so-warm goodbye to her nominator Marley.
The 56-year-old justifies the reasoning behind how the farewell went down, explaining, “I guess I was hurt when he put me up because I left and I was doing everything in my power to save him.
“Even the day before when Sarah Jane wanted me to go with Danny and vote Marley out, Danny gave me his hand to shake on it, I walked away and said I’d prefer to go home than to abandon my people at this point when they need me”.
But it looks like it’s all water under the bridge now, with Mary having nothing but praises to sing about the basketballer. “This is the thing about Marley; he’s loyal, he has integrity, he’s a man of his word,” she tells New Idea.
While we’ve been privy to this Mary and Marley fiasco, there have been plenty of things behind the scenes that viewers have missed out on due to Mary’s very limited air time.
When New Idea spoke to former housemate Katie Williams following her eviction, the Australian Ninja Warrior star expressed her confusion that the mother of the house wasn’t hitting our screens all that much.
Mary, however, isn’t too shocked by it.
“Katie said, ‘You played a big role and they’re not showing you’ and I said, ‘That’s entertainment, honey’,” Mary dishes to us.
She goes on to explain that her daughter Martha Kalifatidis, whom she is currently watching on Celebrity Apprentice, prepared her for the false reality often perpetuated on reality shows.
“I knew that even from MAFS (Married At First Sight) when Martha did the show, she told me how things are, and how they really are.”
But even Mary confesses she got sucked into the convincing editing every now and then. “I was starting to believe,” she says. “I would be watching something and believe the edit.”
Something that was edited out of the show was a kitchen territory feud between Mary and evicted intruder Brenton.
The professional chef previously dished to New Idea that he struggled to be ordered around by Mary. The talented home cook, however, explains her side of the story.
“We were living with rations and then Brenton comes and wants to make a meal with 20 ingredients and I thought, ‘Honey, I can do that too but we are on rations’. That’s where we clashed. But he’s a beautiful person.”
And it wasn’t just Brenton who Mary quibbled with in the kitchen, the reality star confesses that her fellow contestants once said to her, “It’s not Masterchef, it’s Big Brother” and key player Danny even requested she stay out of the kitchen entirely.
“I said ‘Oh, that’s fine with me, I’m happy to cook for one person as opposed to 18 people’. Because I was the one making meals with three ingredients. So after three days Danny comes up to me and he goes, ‘I’ve made a big mistake… we want you back in the kitchen because when you cook we all eat like a family’.”
At the end of the experience, Mary is happy with her time in the Big Brother house, telling us, “I made it to the top 10 twice, what more do I want? I’m a winner in my eyes. I finally accepted that I’ve done well”.
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