Xavier knew he was in for a marathon of a game, so he started low-key, pretending he was a bartender and not talking much strategy with anyone. His likability got him into several key alliances, most notably “The Cookout.” At a certain point, with all of the major house targets gone, Tiffany Mitchell orchestrated a plan to get The Cookout to the end. Unfortunately for Xavier, it involved him eventually turning on his team of Kings, with whom he had been incredibly loyal. His game took arguably its biggest hit when he lost his teammate Christian Birkenberger right before jury, a move he disagreed with to the point of nearly flipping the house. While Xavier remained off the block and relatively away from competitions in the first half of the game, the second half is another story. He played his role in Tiffany’s master plan with his assigned plus one Alyssa Lopez. She accidentally gave him his first nomination via the “Chopping Block Roulette,” and he would proceed to sit in those chairs for the next three weeks after that, mostly as a pawn against Alyssa. When it got down to the Cookout, Xavier was one of the most threatening people left from a competitive perspective. But he had locked down Final Two deals with both Derek Frazier and Kyland Young, the latter of whom even removed him from the block during a double eviction. This gave Xavier the power to clip the biggest threats to his game, including Kyland, who confronted him out the door by asking if his nephew would respect his gameplay. Well, it was clear the jury did, as after winning his way to the end, they all handily put their keys in the box for Xavier. Now out of the house, Xavier talks with Parade.com about weighing team versus alliance loyalties, how he ended up with all of his alliances coming to him for deals, and how he views himself as the first Black winner. It’s been over 12 hours since you were announced the winner. How are you feeling? I haven’t slept! From winning to making phone calls to family, and now doing some press and media tours, it’s been overwhelming. But it’s all been worth it, it’s all been positive, it’s all been great energy. I love every bit of it. Last night seemed like a foregone conclusion, especially after you won that final HoH. But talk me through your reaction once you were actually declared the winner. It was surreal. That’s the word that keeps coming to mind. You put in a lot of hard work, you put in a lot of effort. When it works out the way you hoped they would and the way you’ve planned for them to go, it’s a really incredible thing. This was just something that happened to work out in my favor, and now it came with a nice check. Did anything surprise you with the jury, either with the questioning or the way they voted? I think the questions were great game questions. I think every single member of the jury is a respectable Big Brother game player in their own right. I think we had a brilliant cast of very intelligent people and very skilled game players. So I wasn’t shocked by the questions. With the votes, I wouldn’t say I was fully confident it was gonna be unanimous. I thought there were maybe a couple of votes that would go Big D’s way. But for me to be one of three [unanimous winners] in the history of the show is pretty incredible. I thought Britini would potentially vote for Big D because she had probably a closer relationship with him than I did. She may have respected the social game, and I think Big D did play a good social game in his own right. With Kyland, I wasn’t sure if there was any potential for bitterness between him after our last interaction on his eviction night. But both of them evaluated the game and felt that they respected the game that I played and honored that with a vote. Speaking of Kyland, what have the interactions been like between the two of you since getting out of the house, considering how he left? We spoke briefly on finale night. We basically said that, at some point, we’re going to sit down and have a conversation just to see why I perceived what he said a certain way and what was his intentions were behind what he said. Hopefully we can come to an understanding or maybe get some closure around that incident. Regardless of what happened, Kyland is a part of history. He and I are both a part of the same historic group and the same historic season. It doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll be best friends, but we could at least have more of a positive relationship moving forward. I would prefer that. You came into the season having lost your brother very recently, and I have to commend you on playing such a pressurized game while withholding your emotions most of the time. How tough was that to do? I think that was key. I’ve always prided myself on being able to manage my emotions. I live by a code that you should control your emotions, not the other way around. I think that was exemplified not only through my gameplay, but my demeanor in the house overall. I never wanted my emotions to cause me to have any complex at anyone on a personal level, and I never wanted my emotions to compromise my gameplay. I tried to be very conscious of being fully aware of where I was emotionally to make sure I knew what I needed to do to get my mind back to where I was focused on the game. You mentioned recently that every deal and alliance you made in the game was brought to you, rather than the other way around. What do you credit that to? The skills I’ve learned in the legal community helped a lot. A large part of the legal practice is networking, not only your ability to work well with others, but your ability to incentivize others to want to work with you. Some of that just comes from being someone who people find trustworthy, that they would want to work with. And I think I was able to take those skills from my legal practice and and implement them in the Big Brother game. I think that’s how I resulted in getting a lot of deals and a lot of alliances. You made an effort to lay low in the beginning, barely talking strategy with anyone. How much do you think that got you to where you are right now? I still talked strategy at the beginning, but I tried to do it as discreetly as possible. And I think that’s essential to be successful in the Big Brother game. As we saw throughout this season, if you are someone who is perceived as a big threat, either socially or competitively, you got taken out relatively early. And if you weren’t taken out pre-jury, you were taken out in the first phase of jury. I had to downplay my overall threat level, which I thought was beneficial to my game. One of those rare moments where you stuck out was when Derek X. went after Christian and the Kings at large. Why did you have such difficulty negotiating the priorities of your team and the Cookout? The conflict there was personal relationships versus game relationships in the form of the Cookout. I have amazing relationships with all members of the Cookout. But I really loved the Kings too. They showed me loyalty and trustworthiness throughout the game. At the end of the day, those are arguably the two groups I was most loyal to in the house throughout this game. But my top priority was to the Cookout. So it meant, even though it’s going to be difficult, unfortunately, I’m going to have to lose some members on my Kings team. And that was just kind of the reality. It wasn’t easy, but it needed to be done. At one point, after Tiffany wins HoH, you get heated, calling her selfish and saying she made a $750,000 mistake trying to keep Claire around. Yet, you were also trying to keep your own plus one around in Alyssa. Why were you so angry at her, and how do you look back on that week? I feel like every single person in the Cookout would serve as a good representative as the winner of Big Brother season 23, especially Tiffany. She played one amazing game, and I would never detract from that. If anything, winning back-to-back HoHs was a very strong argument for her. She made history by doing that. It was just at that point in the game, it was a decision that could potentially put the Cookout in a very compromising position, which it subsequently kind of did when Alyssa won the veto. Tiffany was in a position to either put up a Cookout member or Claire, which was a situation that could have been avoided. In hindsight, it all worked out. It was just, in the moment, it didn’t make sense. And Tiffany and I knew that; we had discussions about it. Looking back, it doesn’t matter. It all worked out. You are officially the first Black winner in the history of the Big Brother main series. How do you look at the role you played in this historic season? It’s an amazing honor. It’s not just a win for me, but it’s a win for the entire Black community. And I hope the Black community and Big Brother fans respected my gameplay. I hope both communities feel like I am a deserved winner and a winner who will be a representative for both groups. Next, check out our interview with Tiffany Mitchell shortly after she was declared America’s Favorite Houseguest for Big Brother 23.
