Big Brother 28 houseguest who pulled out at ‘last second’ breaks silence on his abrupt departure

The drama for Big Brother 28 has officially exploded before the houseguests have even walked through the front doors after one contestant pulled out of competing - with the man in question now revealing his reasons why.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that prospective houseguest Levi Banks had been dropped from the lineup of the multi-million dollar reality show just days before the summer premiere.

The pre-season chaos originally came to light when early media promotional materials inadvertently included Banks’ official portrait and bio, only for his name to be completely missing from the network’s final, official video cast reveal.

The sudden disappearance left the reality TV community in a frenzy, with fans tracking down the digital remnants of his profile—revealing him to be a 28-year-old winery executive from Pilot Mountain, North Carolina.

According to initial reports from The U.S. Sun, Banks was allegedly dropped from the roster after committing a serious breach of the show’s legendary, hyper-strict pre-season confidentiality protocol.

Prior to the launch of any Big Brother season, selected contestants are placed into a mandatory two-week sequester period. During this isolation window, players are entirely stripped of their phones and electronics, cut off from the outside world, and subjected to final medical and psychological evaluations to ensure game integrity.

"After everything, he was pulled from the season at basically the very last second," a production source claimed.

However, Levi himself has since broken his silence on his departure, just in time for Thursday night’s nail-biting season premiere, and revealed that this isn’t actually the case.

Taking to Instagram to share his side of the story, the potential contestant revealed that it was actually his decision to step back from the competition.

“What is up, Big Brother fans?” he begins in a video post. “My name is Levi Banks and I just wanted to give you all a quick update and to let you know that I am doing great.”

“I was all set and ready to move into the Big Brother house this season,” he said, “and as we got closer and closer and closer to the move-in day I just kinda realized that this was not the right fit for me personally.”

He then added that it was not an easy choice to make, however it was the right one for him: “I kinda wanted to let you know that was probably the hardest decision of my entire life.”

“I am back home in North Carolina right now,” Levi explains. “And I am on good terms with CBS, Big Brother, and everyone, and I just wanted to let them know and you all know that I am so, so, so thankful for this opportunity. It has been very life-changing.”

A CBS spokesperson also confirmed that Levi left of his own accord and was not pulled from the show.

Yet while Levi won’t be appearing on our screens this season, he did reveal he would be tuning in to watch the show, as he concluded: “I am so freaking excited to watch the show tonight,” he gushes. “Oh my gosh, I am pumped! It’s gonna be a little bit of a different POV than going in the house as to being in my couch, so I will take that one thing at a time. But I want to say thank you all so much for your support. I appreciate each and every one of you, and let’s go Yash!”