Big Brother 26’s Makensy Reveals Which Jury Answer She Wants to Change

Makensy Manbeck doesn’t have any regrets about how she played Big Brother, but she would alter her answer to one of the jury’s questions.

“The thing is, I did make decisions on helping Chelsie [Baham]. I do believe that getting to the end of Big Brother is [about] working with people,” Makensy, 22, exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, October 14, following the Big Brother 26 finale. “If you choose to work with somebody, then you have to remain loyal and make decisions that not only benefit your game but benefit others.”

During the finale, Makensy was asked by the jury to describe a move that she made that benefited solely her game and not Chelsie’s. Makensy chose to highlight her decision to take out ally Leah Peters. Chelsie, 27, subsequently told the jury that she convinced Makensy to make the move because it was better for her game in the long run. Makensy told Us she wishes that she could have “tweaked” that response.

“When I made decisions, I considered that and I listened to the people that I was working with. And if that bit me in the butt and people wanna say that I’m naive and that I made choices for other people, then they are mistaken,” she said. “Because all in all, I had the power. I was the only one to actually make the decision.”

Makensy acknowledged that her game moves also benefited others in addition to herself.

While Makensy wasn’t considered to be the strategy mastermind of the season, she proved herself to be a worthy player. Throughout the season, she won 11 competitions, including the final HOH competition. Makensy ultimately decided to sit next to Chelsie at the end, and Chelsie was voted the unanimous winner. Makensy told Us that she wasn’t surprised Chelsie ended up winning, but she did not expect for it to be by a landslide.

“Based upon the way she articulated her game, I did think she was gonna win immediately. I mean, she is a speaker for a living and I knew that kind of [by] choosing her, but I wasn’t afraid of that,” Makensy recalled. “And she did dang well showing the jury exactly how she played this game and how she should win. I mean, shoot, if I was a jury member I probably would’ve voted for her too. So the votes being unanimous, I understand. I at least thought I’d have one [vote].”

Makensy shared that she thought her game “spoke for itself” but admitted that in the end, it was “OK” that it “wasn’t enough.” She also doesn’t regret sitting next to Chelsie in the finale because her loyalty to her ally was a “testament” to the game she played.

“I came into this house wanting to be truly authentically myself, show who I am and show that you can play Big Brother in an honest character worthy, just kind, respectable way and still get far. And that’s exactly what I did,” she told Us. “And I was loyal, maybe to a fault, but what I can say is that being loyal to a fault is something that I would lose to any day of the week because it shows who I am and what I value in life.”

With reporting by Sara Donnellan