Reggie won Big Brother Australia in 2003, and she is arguably one of the most beloved housemates to ever enter the house.
Now, in her second stint inside the BB compound, she’s made the final three and has opened up about what she’ll do with the $250,000 prize money if she’s crowned the winner tonight. If Reggie wins tonight she will be the first two time winner of Big Brother in the world.
Reggie’s struggles have been well documented – she’s been declared legally blind as a result of a rare condition called retinitis pigmentosa and her eight-year-old son was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. However, despite her shortcomings, Reggie says she doesn’t want to be a “sympathy vote”.
“Not once have I played the sympathy card. They say I don’t deserve to be here but I’ve given every challenge my all. I don’t want sympathy,” she told The Daily Telegraph.
“I’ve read comments like, ‘she is faking her blindness’. Who would want to fake this? I don’t give them anything. I don’t write anything back. I just try not to read it.”
As a result of the retinitis pigmentosa, Reggie has lost her peripheral vision and was informed that she could lose her sight completely at any time. 18 years ago doctors told Reggie that her vision would be completely gone in 15 years.
“So I’m just hanging on to this little bit that I’ve got left,” she said.
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“I make the most of each day. It is like looking through a straw. I’ve got no peripheral vision, no night vision and just nine degrees of central vision. Another way of saying it is also like I could see a pencil across the room but I would trip over 100 elephants to get to that pencil.”
Reggie told the publication that the two-bedroom apartment that she currently rents with her kids has recently been sold, so she would use the prize money to find their family new accommodation.
“Winning would help me and the kids so much. I would try and use it as a deposit to get us a place to live.”
According to betting odds, Reggie is tipped to take out this year’s Big Brother. On punting site Sportsbet a $1.00 bet on her is returning just $1.42, while Johnson and Taras are outliers at $3.75 and $10.00 respectively. Voting is open until 7:30pm AEST tonight, and you can vote for your favourite housemate here.
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