It is not rare for contestants to leave CBS’s Big Brother each week following an eviction, but it is rare for a houseguest to willing leave the series. On last night’s episode of Big Brother, contestant Megan Lowder disappeared for hours with fellow contestants assuming she was in the diary room. It was later revealed that Lowder left the competition for personal reasons. The statement given from producers for the houseguests to read said, “Due to an urgent personal matter, Megan will no longer be participating in Big Brother this summer.”
While the producers did not disclose much information regarding Lowder’s exit, the former houseguest revealed to The Desert Sun the real reason she left the show. She revealed that her experience on the show took her back to terrible memories that she experienced when she was in the Navy. “When I was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia, I was sexually assaulted and I got really bad PTSD from it.” She continued, “So in the house… I had a lot of guys yelling at me and attacking me and it started really affecting me and making my anxiety severe and I was starting to get physically ill. I was throwing up, I had diarrhea, I was nauseous all the time.”
Lowder became a target during the second episode of Season 19. Fellow houseguest Josh Martinez was seen yelling at her following the first Head of Household competition. During the altercation, Martinez accused Lowder of gunning for him to be the first houseguest evicted. More drama ensued on last night’s episode when she misheard a contestant and assumed a statement to be a racist remark, rather than a comparison to former houseguest Paola Shea. When she confronted her friend Alex, the woman Lowder believed was being racially stereotyped, her former ally did not believe her. Shea took to Twitter to say in a video that she does not look like Alex and that the comparison is “some racist sh*t.”
The last time viewers saw Lowder, she was crying in the diary room. While most houseguests did not seem concerned following her exit, fan favorite Kevin Schleuber said, “I feel sorry for her. I just hope she’s all right.”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lowder was expected to be a star competitor for this season. Executive producer Allison Grodner even predicted that Lowder had the potential to win the entire season.