When professional wrestler and tattooed behemoth Austin Matelson first came into the Big Brother house, one of the first things he made abundantly clear was that Austin has a girlfriend outside, and that, out of respect for her, he wouldn't be dabbling in any showmances. His exact words were "I have my princess in the castle out there waiting for me to return from my crusade," a reference to his Master's Degree in Medieval Literature, and that was apparently that. Until he met fellow HouseGuest Liz Nolan, that is, and fell for her so hard that I honestly have trouble watching the episodes every week without cringing.
He also fell for her hard enough that the entire viewing audience started wondering whether Austin was cheating on his girlfriend, or if Liz knew that he was in a relationship, questions we don't really have definite answers to at this point. Austin has deflected most of the concerns by claiming that he and his girlfriend have an "open relationship," but I'm not 100% convinced I believe that. And, from what we've seen, Liz doesn't have her mind completely at ease about it either, based on her conversations with Vanessa about it, Liz's twin Julia's intense dislike of Austin, and the fact that she's still only let him peck her on the lips a couple times.
But, even though we don't have answers there yet, I'm ready to ask an entirely new question: does Austin's girlfriend know what's going on between him and Liz? My first instinct would be yes, since, if my significant other was going on a real-time, televised reality show, you better believe I'd be tuning in. And that appears to be the case! It would be hard to miss Austin's feelings for Liz, given that he brings them up in almost every Diary Room segment we're shown and barely leaves her side, and it doesn't appear that Austin's girlfriend has missed a thing. Some close-watchers on Reddit have noticed that although Austin's girlfriend is still listed as "in a relationship" with him, she recently changed her profile photo from one of the two of them together to one of her by herself.
Now... this could be because she's getting a lot of unwanted attention from fans of the show and wants to throw them off the case a bit, or because she's been observing Austin on the show and wants to send a message, but, either way, it seems like she's distancing herself from him. But until she breaks her silence and says something herself about how she's feeling or what she's thinking, we'll just have to trust what Austin says about his relationship. And, boy oh boy, does he not seem to be worried.
For more on the houseguests, check out Bustle’s very own Big Brother podcast, The Diary Room. Listen to the latest episode below, and be sure to check out future episodes on Bustle’s SoundCloud page and iTunes.
Images: CBS (2)
