Evicted Big Brother 25 houseguest Jared Fields was eliminated from the game after losing the Resurrection Rumble, and he’s now addressing the backlash against him that occurred during his time in the game. Jared, a 25-year-old exterminator from Norwalk, Connecticut, was part of one of the biggest Big Brother 25 twists, as his mother, Survivor legend and The Traitors season 1 winner Cirie Fields, was added to the cast as the 17th houseguest. Jared spent his game protecting himself, Cirie, and his showmance, Blue Kim.
Throughout Big Brother 25, Jared was a strong competitor. He was the HOH during weeks 5 and 7, and won the Power of Veto during week 6. He successfully evicted Red Utley and then saved his mother from being backdoored by Cameron Hardin the following week by winning the veto. In week 7, he evicted Cameron, but then he was eliminated during the double eviction. Ultimately, he didn’t win the Resurrection Rumble, so Cameron earned his way back into the house in the Do or Die competition. Now Jared is explaining his many scandals.
Jared Fields Says Using The R-Word Is “Not Who I Am” & Apologizes
Although he didn’t know it because he was in the Big Brother house, Jared came under intense fire in early September when he was seen on the live feeds (clip provided by BigBrotherXtra) apologizing to Cory Wurtenberger for calling America Lopez the r-word. Jared had chosen America by random draw to play in the Power of Veto competition, and lashed out. However, he later told Cory, “I don’t think she’s the r-word. I slipped up. Obviously I was angry about it. I’m willing to admit that.” The live feeds didn’t show Jared using the slur, but viewers immediately called for his removal from the game.
In an interview with Parade, Jared insisted that his use of the r-word doesn’t represent who he really is. He said, “I have no space for that in my everyday life. I coach kids with disabilities every day, and it’s just something that I would never want to be. I never want to put on somebody else to make them stressed out or make them feel as if they’re anything less than anybody else in his house.” Jared emphasized, “That’s just not who I am.” He repeated that he has no space for it in his life moving forward, and even before this, there was no space for it.
After Jared’s use of the r-word, there was fierce backlash not only because of what Jared had said, but because Luke Valentine had been removed from house during week 1 for using the n-word in a conversation with Jared, Cory, and Hisam Goueli. Jag Bains’ family and the Special Olympics also condemned his use of the word. Jag volunteers for the Special Olympics.
Fans thought that Big Brother was being selective with enforcing their zero tolerance policy against using hate speech. They felt that maybe Jared being Cirie’s son was keeping him in the game to preserve the twist, and even accused the show of rigging the game in his favor. Jared remained in the game until he was evicted.
In an ET exit interview with Big Brother 24 winner Taylor Hale, Jared addressed this controversy as well, admitting that he received a warning from the show. He said, “I can’t really speak on the fact of the show not really removing me from the game. I know that I got a really stern warning about making sure that that never happened again, and it didn’t. It never happened again.”
Jared also apologized for saying the r-word. He said, “It’s just one of those things that I completely regret, and I wanted to apologize about, because it’s just not my demeanor, it’s not my character, and it’s not something I would say in everyday life.” Jared concluded by saying, “It’s never something that I would ever do again, so I just want to apologize to anybody who was offended by that, ’cause that is just not who I am.”
Jared Claims He Didn’t Use Matt Klotz’s Disability To His Advantage
During the blowout argument between Jared and Cory, in order to cover up his lie about Jag Bains, Jared told Matt Klotz that he must have misunderstood what he said. Matt, who is deaf, was upset because he felt as though Jared had taken advantage of his disability. Matt knew exactly what Jared had said, and didn’t misunderstand anything. Jared had also told Blue that Matt would automatically win because of his disability if he made it to the Final 2. Fans were outraged by these comments, calling Jared ableist.
In his Parade interview, Jared explained that he and Matt had discussed this issue. He said that he and Matt “had a conversation about this after, and he completely understood. Matt also told me that when we were in this argument, he felt like he kind of just needed to pull out something to make yourself essentially feel better about the decision.”
However, Jared understands why his comments were problematic. He shared, “But regardless of how he felt, or how I felt about it, at the end of the day, disabilities are something that I would never use to my advantage inside of his game or outside of his game.” Jared continued, “I still do understand intent versus impact, regardless of what I intended to say. And I know that it’s something every day moving forward that I need to work on to make sure that it’s just never excused. And there’s never even a line to be blurred there.”
Jared Explains His Misogynistic Comments
Jared also made many comments throughout Big Brother 25 that were perceived as misogynistic. He even stated that he “only started seeing women as people” recently. In his Parade interview, Jared explained that his comment came from “having a single mom and a single dad,” and being brought up with “11 different brothers from 11 different moms.” He added, “I feel like that a lot of the values that I was taught being brought up were actually negative values.” Jared said that once he was able to get away from those things, and be able to grow as a person, “I was able to see everybody as people.”
Jared went on to say that, in the Big Brother house, he learned that “no one person is better than the other. No one gender is better than the other gender. And it was a learning experience.” Jared revealed that he loved having people like Blue and Izzy Gleicher sit him down and explain to him, “Hey, listen, this is what you thought. This is maybe how you were brought up. But this ain’t what it is.”
Jared admitted that throughout his life, he was looked at as “less than” because of the color of his skin. He said, “And that’s something that I never wanted to impose on anybody else moving forward, regardless of the reasoning behind it.” Jared wanted to clarify that, “I see everybody as people, regardless of small, short, white, Black, brown, yellow, purple, green, red. It doesn’t matter to me. I love them all.”
Jared Clarifies His Real World Relationship Status & Showmance With Blue Kim
Throughout his Big Brother 25 showmance with Blue, some fans insisted that Jared was cheating on his real-world girlfriend. They heard Jared refer to his “girlfriend,” Kenzie, on the live feeds. However, others wondered how he could be so blatant about being with Blue if he had a girlfriend on the outside. In an interview with GlobalTV, Jared explained that he’d just gotten out of a seven-year relationship before he entered the Big Brother house. He said, “It was a fresh break-up for me, and I was very open and honest with Blue about this.”
Jared shared that Blue was “really receptive about it and really open and helping me just kind of deal with the aftermath of such a long-term relationship, such a fresh break-up. She was really cool about it.” Blue had also just gotten out of a relationship, which was four years long. As for their future together, Jared said, “I’m not one to jinx the future. (laughs) I believe in letting things happen the way they happen. I believe in just letting things form the way they form, but I do see see a bright future for me and Blue.”
In Jared’s interview with Taylor, he admitted that he told himself before he entered the Big Brother 25 house that he wouldn’t get into a showmance because he didn’t want to jump into a new relationship and still be thinking about someone else. However, he told Blue about his situation and was open and honest about it, so that she understood why he felt certain ways. Although Jared said that it was tough, he said that he doesn’t regret his showmance with Blue.
Jared’s Big Brother 25 game has come to an end, but he will be remembered not only as a fierce competitor, but as part of one of the biggest twists in the game’s history. Although he told Blue that his mother was in the house, and Izzy immediately recognized them as mother and son, they successfully hid their relationship from the other houseguests. Unfortunately, Jared’s time with the show was marred by controversy of his own making, but his apology and explanations seem sincere. This is certainly not the last that viewers will see of Jared, and he’s sure to follow in his mom’s footsteps and appear on other reality competition series in the future.
Big Brother 25 airs Sundays at 10 p.m. EDT, Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EDT, and Thursdays at 9 p.m. EDT on CBS.