Still furious over being blindsided on Wednesday night’s explosive second Big Brother VIP eviction, Matt Cooper has now claimed fellow housemate Luke Toki “swore on his kids’ lives” that he wouldn’t vote him out before orchestrating an epic blindside.
Matt was up for eviction along with Josh Carroll and Thomas Markle Jr by Ellie Gonsalves, who hoped her housemates would ultimately vote Thomas out.
But at the eleventh hour, Luke convinced several VIPs to turn on Matt, and he was unceremoniously evicted from the show.
Matt opened up exclusively to Now To Love about his anger over Luke’s “dishonest” tactics, saying the pair had a strong alliance from the start.
“What kind of bloke does that, to me that is the worst thing you can do,” he says.
“I’m not bitter because I left the show, its just the way they went about it. Why rub my nose in it. If you want me out, I wouldn’t have cared if they just said ‘I’m going to vote for you’ and I would have said ‘sweet, no dramas’. But don’t come to me and lie to my face.
“That’s next level. You don’t do that to someone. That’s just being an a–hole.”
Matt also revealed that on day one, he and Luke made a pact to have each other’s backs – but clearly the former Survivor star had other ideas.
“We said we’re not going to pretend that we’re best friends in the house but we’re going to have an alliance between each other and that was the case,” Matt says.
“We spoke alone and we did a big handshake, he said ‘I swear on my kids’ [lives]. I’ll help you out and you help me out.’ That continued all the way. I think he was just jealous of me and Dayne’s bromance.”
The former NRL star also believes Luke only concocted the blindside for the “limelight” and to receive more camera time.
“I just think he did it for the attention. He’s clearly an attention seeker, he loves the camera. To me when you give your word to someone that’s a binding contract for males. He’s proved that with the first elimination when he tried to get rid of Dayne,” he explains.
And there’s no love lost between the pair. Matt and Luke have only spoken via Instagram since the show wrapped, with the father-of-two saying their conversation “wasn’t pleasant”.
Matt says he was also backstabbed by former Married At First Sight bride Jessika Power, who turned on him at the last minute after Luke convinced her to vote him out.
“Jess, she is as fake as her lips. She was giving me about five cuddles saying ‘Matty you’re right, don’t worry, you’ve got my word’. As a person, why would you do that to someone if you know you’re going to vote for someone,” he says.
Matt also believes that Luke’s move to vote him out will ultimately cost him and Josh Carrol their power, with the girls in the house now having a stronger alliance in numbers.
“If they just listened to me with Omarosa in the beginning, clearly the power was with the girls. And now they’ve got all the power because you’ve got the four girls and Bernie [Curry] because he’s one of the girls,” he says.
“If they listened to me in the first place and voted Bernie off we would have had a strong hold on the whole plan.”
Despite Ellie Gonsalves putting Matt up for eviction, which ultimately led to his time in the Big Brother VIP house being cut short, the NRL legend has nothing but glowing words for the actress.
“She said to me she was sorry and I didn’t care, that’s fine. She had to do it. After I got eliminated she came up to me and gave me a cuddle and said she tried her best to stop Luke and the others blindsiding me,” he says.
“Ellie is a special girl, she’s got a beautiful heart. She’s there for the right reasons. She’s there for a charity, she’s not there for the airtime like Luke and Jess.”
He also heaped praise on Caitlyn Jenner, saying: “I loved Caitlyn, she was awesome. I know she didn’t vote for me, she stuck with the plan.”
Want more Big Brother VIP content? Look no further…
Meet the Big Brother VIP 2021 contestants
Big Brother is watching! Here’s exactly where Big Brother VIP is being filmed
In pictures: Sonia Kruger’s jaw-dropping beauty transformation through the years
In photos: Sonia Kruger and daughter Maggie are the ultimate mother-daughter duo