‘Big Brother 26’: Kenney Kelley on wanting to quit the show

Kenney Kelley spoke out about frequently wanting to quit “Big Brother 26” following his eviction last week.

In an exclusive interview with The Post, the 52-year-old former undercover cop from Boston said that while he doesn’t regret going on the CBS reality show, he wasn’t prepared for how difficult the experience turned out to be for him.

“I completely underestimated the emotional aspect of it. I didn’t realize the amount of downtime that came along with the game,” Kelley said.

“I was really into the HOH competition and nominations and Veto comp, things like that,” he continued. “Then once that portion of the week was over, it was time to have the social game and work with the alliances. And that’s where I really fell into a hole.”

Kelley was nominated for eviction all three weeks that he was in the house, which he said impacted his motivations for wanting to be there.

“And especially being older,” he added. “I didn’t have a lot in common with a lot of younger people, and Angela [Murray] put me on the block first week. That completely severed our relationship and our ability to work together. So that’s what made it difficult. But the next week came along and I was in the game and I was ready to go. So that’s kind of the reason why the roller coaster was happening.”

Kelley also revealed what his family thought about his to-quit-or-not-to-quit mindset on the show.

“My daughter wasn’t happy about me going anyway. But my wife was super excited and super supportive,” he said. “She was having a hard time with it herself, but she had a good support system at home. She said at the time she was yelling at the live feeds, telling me to get my head in the game and start doing things, but clearly I couldn’t hear her.”

“A lot of things were going on back here. Not necessarily bad, but my pool turned green, the tree fell in the backyard, the air conditioner stopped working, and my daughter was still having a very difficult time with me not being in the house. So I’m okay with what had happened.”

“I would have loved to have give the fans a little bit more, but, to be honest, I really gave them everything I had, especially with the amount of emotions that I was going through.”

As for Murray, Kelley said that he’s “still unhappy” with how the 50-year-old real estate agent acted during her HOH reign the first week, during which she yelled at and targeted Kelley’s ally, Matt Hardeman.

“But she’s human,” Kelley noted. “She made some mistakes. She apologized for them. But at the end of the day, that wasn’t something that I’m about.”

“So, when it came time with her in the house and she didn’t go home, she was very isolated and people weren’t talking to her, and people were getting to arguments with her all the time,” he continued. “But I wouldn’t do that. And I told the house straight up, I said, ‘Listen, I’m not going to work with her as a player, but I’m a human being and I don’t want her to feel this way. So I am going to talk to her and I am going to have conversations with her.’”

“So I had a lot of good conversation with her, and I let her know, ‘Hey, I’ll have personal conversations with you, but us working together, that’s it. That ship has sailed.’”

“Big Brother” airs Sundays, Wednesdays and Thursdays on CBS and Paramount+.