Big Brother’s Joel and Drew’s bombshell pact: ‘Perfect ammunition’

Big Brother housemate Joel Notley has been known as a ‘challenge beast’, with his physical dominance posing a huge threat in the house. From the get go, he played a ‘high risk, high reward’ game, which put a big target on his back.

After getting evicted on Monday night, he spoke to Yahoo Lifestyle about the sneaky pact he made with Anthony Drew, his romance with Aleisha Campbell, and the challenge which sent him packing.

Joel Notley was considered a big threat in the Big Brother house. Photo: Seven

‘Perfect ammunition’

Viewers were shocked when Drew approached Joel with a proposition to vote each other’s girlfriends out when the time was right. While Joel looked like he was onboard with the idea, he went straight to Aleisha to spill the beans.

“As soon as he started talking and telling me this, my first thought was, ‘I’m using this to set him up’, straight away. This is ammunition he’s given me,” he starts.

“We start to plant some seeds, because down the track we’re going to need Sam’s vote to get rid of Drew, and that was the perfect ammunition to give her to pull the trigger and make it happen,” he reasons.

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Showing that he was big on strategy and power moves, Joel also mentions that he loves to ‘stir the pot’ a little bit. The fallout from this play by Joel hasn’t occurred yet, but this strategic move is likely to make waves in the upcoming episodes.

Aleisha and Joel’s romance

The couple made headlines last week when Joel told fellow housemate Aleisha that he didn’t have an urge to kiss her, leaving her in tears and wondering what she’d done wrong.

Joel and Aleisha couldn’t help but fall for each other while on the show. Photo: Seven

Joel explains that he didn’t want the relationship to overtake his or Aleisha’s ‘experience’ in the house, and that he was nervous about ruining their time on Big Brother. A chat with housemate Dave Graham opened up his eyes, realising that the pair had something quite special.

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Once Joel had the courage to give their relationship a try, the pair realised they could use their relationship drama as strategy, with Aleisha pretending to still be upset to gain sympathy from the other housemates.

“I was actually able to leverage [our relationship], everyone’s feelings and emotions around it, and feeling sorry for her to actually put her in a position of power,” he recalls.

The house is known for creating couples, with the most well known being Anthony Drew and Tully Smyth, who are currently still in the house. Joel mentions that the Big Brother house is like a “pressure cooker environment”, where you form very strong relationships in a short amount of time.

While the new couple finally had their first kiss on Monday night, the romance ended there, as Joel admits he now has a new girlfriend.

Joel and Aleisha realised they could use their relationship as strategy in the house. Photo: Seven .

‘High risk, high reward’

Joel knew he was on the chopping block if he lost to a ‘royalty’ or ‘OG’ player in the nomination challenge, as he was known as one of the biggest threats in the house.

This led to an epic challenge that spanned hours, with Estelle and Joel being the last ones standing. In an unexpected twist, Estelle was able to beat all the housemates, sealing Joel’s fate.

“I was so exhausted physically and mentally,” he remembers.

“I ended up sort of collapsing off in the end, because my calves end up giving way and my whole body was under strain.” he says.

The builder mentions that he was pretty sure he would be evicted, noting that they had “one chance” to get him out of the house, and this was it. It seemed that all the other housemates knew as well, with Aleisha sobbing in the diary room before voting.

“I came into the house knowing I was playing a high risk, high reward game,” he says.

“I wouldn’t change a single thing. If I had pulled back on challenges and didn’t push myself as much as I did, I would have ripped myself off because I wasn’t being me.”

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