Being married made it hard to connect with male housemates — BBN evictee, Abi

Abisola “Abi” Ayoola’s seven-week journey in the Big Brother Naija Season 11 house may have ended with eviction, but the married model and chef says the experience taught her valuable lessons about relationships, resilience and being careful with personal information.

Abi, who was evicted alongside Araga during Sunday’s double eviction, reflected on her time on the reality show in a post-eviction interview, where she opened up about the challenges of navigating the house as a married woman.

She said, “The hardest part for me was being a married woman in the house and trying to navigate connections with the male housemates. At first, I felt like they were holding back because they knew I was married, but eventually, I got past that.”

Abi’s relationships with her fellow housemates became one of the recurring storylines during her stay. Although she formed friendships, she also had disagreements, particularly with Oyin and Flora.

She said one of her biggest lessons from the experience was the need to be more careful about how much personal information she shared with people.

According to the reality star, she discovered that information shared in confidence could later be weaponised during arguments.

For Abi, however, the experience also revealed a stronger side of her personality.

She said the intense environment of the house helped her discover a level of strength and resilience she did not know she possessed.

Explaining her emotional moments during the show, Abi said they were largely a reaction to the pressure of living under constant scrutiny.

“I was emotional because of the environment. The house was intense and challenging,” she said.

Beyond the relationships and disagreements, Abi also established herself as one of the housemates who could wield influence when it mattered.

• I don’t want BBN romance to define me — Evicted housemate, Gerard
• Ogun traders protest govt eviction order
• Meat seller kills 25-year-old wife in Ekiti

She won the Head of House challenge twice during her stay, becoming the first female housemate to achieve the feat in the season.

According to her, occupying the position twice earned her respect and made other contestants more interested in having her on their teams during tasks.

However, the position also placed her at the centre of difficult decisions and nomination twists.

During one of the nomination rounds, she was required to select members of her winning team for possible eviction, with Araga among those she picked.

Although Araga survived that nomination, both contestants would later find themselves on the eviction list in subsequent weeks.

Away from the game, Abi also had to deal with a more personal challenge as she spent her first wedding anniversary away from her husband.

She described the experience as nerve-racking and sad, although she was grateful for the opportunity to send him a message while still in the house.

Despite the difficult moments, Abi said she had no plans to allow her eviction to slow down her ambitions.

The former housemate plans to explore modelling and acting while also pursuing flight training.

She is also considering entrepreneurship, with a bakery and bikini line among the business ideas she is weighing.