'Big Brother 25's Mecole "Meme" Hayes Explains Her Final Words to the Houseguests

'Big Brother 25' houseguest Mecole "Meme" Hayes

Big Brother’s house is open once more! Every week, Parade.com’s Mike Bloom will be bringing you interviews with this season's houseguests as they get evicted from the game.

Mecole "Meme" Hayes thrives behind closed doors. After all, working in politics, she knows that's where the best work is done. Walking into a game full of personal politics, Meme opted to lay low and not give much, saving her true feelings for those solitary moments in the storage room. Unfortunately, her cards were so close to her chest that no one wanted to deal her in. And that strategy made things as ominous for her as a prescient tweet, or the poetry of Emily Dickinson. Despite the game being seemingly over for her number one ally and blockmate Felicia Cannon, yet another vote flip kept her in the house, making Meme go from pawn to gone.

Outside of Big Brother, Meme has loads of ambition, drafting six federal policies so far into law. But when she entered the house, her spectrum skewed to conservative, not wanting to make too many waves or express her opinion. She became a part of several alliances in the first week, including the Professors, the Brown Sugar Babes, and the Bye Bye Bitches. But regardless who she was playing with, it was clear Meme was not having it with their constant flipping back and forth and emotional outbursts. She tried to serve as the constant in a house full of variables, trying to serve as a voice of reason while her allies consistently questioned all of their options. While her tight gameplay didn't put her on anyone's radar, it also didn't allow her to reach out and make significant connections outside of those early alliances.

That all came home to roost this week. When Cameron Hardin won HoH yet again, he had his eyes set on Felicia, nominating her once more against her closest ally in Meme. Though Meme lost out on the veto by about 30 seconds, she felt good about her chances of staying. It also helped that all eyes were drifting to Cory Wurtenberger, between Cameron nearly backdooring him, and Felicia using her veto speech to call him and America Lopez out on lies spread about their new alliance. But, as much as Meme tried to mitigate flips in the house, this was a crucial one she couldn't stop. Matt Klotz and Jag Bains were fearful of Meme as a future competition threat, and knew Felicia would keep going after Cory if she stayed. They came together with Cory and America to devise one more prejury flip. Meme got sent out unanimously, but filibustered a bit at the door to call out several of her houseguests.

Now out of the house, Meme talks with Parade.com about who she was indicating in her final remarks, her lack of trust in Cory, and her insistence on sticking with the Brown Sugar Babes.

Related: Everything to Know About Big Brother 25

So we have to start with your final words to the houseguests. On your way out the door, you said that Cory, America, and Bowie were in an alliance. Then the camera cut away when you said they were targeting three people, and they were using one other person to do their bidding because they couldn’t win competitions. Who were those people you were indicating, and why did you decide to say that in that moment?
I was referring to Jag, Matt, and Blue. And to be honest with you, I may or may not have been telling the truth. Now, Cory did say this to me exactly. But I know that Cory does a lot of "zhuzhing." He does a lot of talking, a lot of manipulating. So I decided to take a page out of the book of Cory Wurtenberger and use a bit of his game against him. And let's see how it plays out.

So who was the one person you were saying that "unholy trinity" was using to do their bidding?
Mama Fe was the weapon that he was planning to use against them. I know that when Cory was going in and having these conversations about flipping the vote, he was using the fact that Blue had been advocating to keep me to tell Mama Fe, "Well, we were all on board with getting Meme out and keeping you in the house. And the only person who was really against it was Blue." So he wanted to build some type of distrust there. And I just thought I'd let Mama Fe know.

Now, I know you were obviously not happy with Cory and America. You snubbed them for hugs on the way out, called them out, and told Julie that you all never trusted each other. Talk to me about your feelings about them.
Well, I knew that the both of them have been going around and having plenty of conversations about me. America has always been telling everyone, "Meme doesn't take game with me." And I was like, "Girl, what do you want me to say? Anytime someone talks to you, you go and tell it to the entire house. Why do you think that I will give you any ammunition to use against me?" And Cory was the same way. He was always poking and prodding, always watching me obsessively, asking me questions about who I was talking to and what those conversations were like. So, as much as both of them would have liked me to believe that they trusted me, I knew that they didn't. And I knew that they were the two who ran upstairs to the HoH and tried to convince everyone to flip the vote. And unfortunately, for me, it worked.

I can tell you that, up until a couple of weeks ago, Cory genuinely wanted to work with you and was trying to build that relationship. That only changed when you picked him in the knockout comp during the double eviction. What’s your reaction to that?
I mean, I'm not really surprised, to be honest with you. Leading up to that I felt that Cory wanted to trust me, but I just didn't really feel like we were there. And, for me, I really wanted to start exploring different avenues. Blue and I had started having conversations around this time. I picked her twice in "BB Odd Couples." And so I just wanted to start extending an olive branch so that we can really build on that relationship. But I do know that Cory started to pick up on that, which is probably why that led to my demise. Because I know that him and Blue had some type of rift, so it probably didn't sit well with him.

When Julie asked you for speculation as to who in the house was related this season, you said America and Cameron. I would love to know what initially made you come to that conclusion. [Laughs.]
[Laughs.] I just thought they had a very interesting relationship, one that I couldn't fully understand. Sometimes it made sense. And at other times it just seemed odd to me. So I think maybe there was something more there that neither any of us in the house really understood. So that was my first guess.

Well, Julie went on to reveal the actual related pair in Jared and Cirie. Does that affect the way you look back on your time with them in Brown Sugar Babes?
It does. I am literally still shook from the idea that Jared is Cirie's son. So many things just start to make sense to me. Just anytime he won HoH, she spent so much time up there. I remember specifically going to knock on the door just to go in and hang out, and she was in there. She was like, "Oh, come back, Meme." And I was like, "Why?" I didn't really understand it, but I didn't want to push too much. And then he moved out of the Scary room into the Comic room. And during the zombie resurrection, she was coaching him and giving him advice. And [she was] really, really upset and had continued to talk about his eviction from the house and how Mama Fe and I kind of played into that. So it makes sense.

You were part of the Brown Sugar Babes from the very beginning. But from our perspective, that seemed to be the only alliance and connections you tried to maintain during your time at the house. What made you want to be so committed to them, especially with so much other gameplay going on in the house?
I really was very loyal to Brown Sugar Babes. I believed in it 100%. And I told them all the time. I'm like, "Guys, you guys are the only people that I actually trust in this house." So when it came down to the week that Izzy and Mama Fe were on the block, and I was hearing that Jared and Cirie had been going around and trying to mastermind this plan, I guess, to get Mama Fe out and campaigning against her and wanting to leave me out of it because I was so close to her, I was just like, "I will never trust again. I believed in you guys." Definitely was to my detriment. I should have done more outreach. But I really, really do believe in Brown Sugar Babes.

You found out from Cory that Jared had told him about Brown Sugar Babes, which is absolutely true. Why did you decide to stick with that alliance after that was told to you?
At that point, they were the ones who had been working with since the very beginning of the game, the ones who I'd been talking strategy with, the ones who kind of knew where I stood in the house and who I felt most comfortable with at all. And so it just felt very natural to gravitate back toward that space. And I really honestly did not believe that Jared had told Cory about Brown Sugar Babes. I do believe that he sits around in rooms and listens to conversations. That big blow-up that happened between Cirie and Mama Fe in the Scary room, Mama Fe was saying a whole lot. She kept saying, "Brown Sugar Babes." She kept saying, "I really trusted us four and you two were a part of my demise and trying to sabotage me." So I really did assume that he just overheard it.

It's clear you had felt like America and Cory were the ones responsible for your eviction. But I can reveal to you that there was another duo who made it happen behind the scenes. Jag and Matt also were putting in the work, feeling like you were too much of a competition threat to them, and wanting to keep Felicia to pit her against Cory and America. What's your reaction to that?
I mean, I'm not surprised by that. Matt is a low-key player as well. He has his side with Jag and Blue and maybe even Cam to that extent. But for the most part, he doesn't really get involved from what I know in the strategy. So I'm sure that Jag was leading this campaign. I also know that he probably heard from Cory that I was the one that tried to flip the vote on him that week that he was on the block against Red. I was having a lot of conversations with him and really trying to convince him to say stay on my side and vote to evict Mama Fe. But I had assumed that he'd heard about my attempt to flip the vote his week. I knew it was shot in the dark but worth a try.

Let's finish with some rapid-fire thoughts on each of the houseguests. Starting with America.
[Pause.] Let's go with "leaky."
Blue.
Snakey.
Bowie Jane.
Aloof.
Cameron.
Power player.
Cirie.
Mastermind.
Cory.
Nerd.
Felicia.
Mama Fe.
Jag.
Goofy.
Matt.
Winner.

I have one more reveal for you. The person you called aloof, Bowie Jane, just won HoH!
I heard! DJ BJ. You go, girl! I'm not mad at it.

Next, check out our interview with Jared Fields, who was evicted during Big Brother 25 Week 8.