The Untold Truth Of Natalie Negrotti
While many people who earn reality television fame find that it's fleeting, some reality stars are able to turn one appearance into a full-fledged career. That's certainly the case for Natalie Negrotti, who first found fame on Season 18 of CBS's long-running show Big Brother. The 11th house guest evicted from the Big Brother house, it appeared Negrotti's 15 minutes of fame were over.
Fortunately, MTV revived Negrotti's reality career when they opened up The Challenge series to former Big Brother house guests in the beginning of 2018. On why the network decided to cast "outsiders" on the show, Bunim-Murray Productions (the show's production company) President of Entertainment & Development Julie Pizzi told Rolling Stone that the network wanted to "use franchises that we have across the globe and sort of integrate them." That worked to Negrotti's favor, as so far she's appeared on two seasons of The Challenge: Vendettas and Final Reckoning.
Negrotti recently made headlines not for her appearances on TV, but for coming out as pansexual. Find out more about the untold truth of Natalie Negrotti.
She's Venezuelan
According to her Big Brother casting page, Negrotti's hometown is Caracas, Venezuela. Though she acknowledges that her accent is basically gone, Negrotti still struggles with her second language at times. "My English isn't the best!" she said in a YouTube video. "Sometimes I can't formulate the best sentences because Spanish is my first language." She also often tweets and posts Instagram captions in Spanish.
On top of originally hailing from South America, Negrotti has revealed that she grew up in a female-only home. "I'm very tough and have street smarts because I was raised by a single mother," Negrotti's Big Brother casting page explains. "I've had to work my whole life and helped my mom pay her bills when I was in high school." Negrotti expected that to help her on Big Brother, and perhaps went into her seasons of The Challenge with the same mindset. "People won't expect how much adversity I faced and how tough I am because I'm so pretty," she said.
She's pansexual
After appearing on The Challenge: Vendettas, Negrotti found herself an enemy in fellow competitor Kayleigh Morris who Negrotti claims outed her on social media. "I wasn't ready and I haven't even got the opportunity to tell my whole family. She just did it in a really malicious way and that's not fair to me," Negrotti revealed in a confessional on the third episode of Final Reckoning (via People), when she revealed that she's pansexual. "It was really homophobic in a way," Negrotti told Us Weekly on the Watch With Us podcast.
She has since claimed the label, and is proud of herself for stating her truth. "I came out with my story to share my truth with those who are battling the same thing I did," Negrotti tweeted as the episode aired. "Do not throw hate at anyone for their actions."
Not only did she open up about her sexuality, but Negrotti also revealed to Watch With Us that she's in a relationship with a woman who she called her "biggest supporter." "She's a really great fit for me, and she's really special to me," Negrotti said.
She was a cheerleader
Negrotti's stint on Big Brother wasn't her first time in the spotlight. Before Negrotti entered the Big Brother house and eventually went on to compete in The Challenge franchise, her pep was put to use on the NFL football field where she cheered for the New York Jets. Her Instagram profile is full of photos of her time wearing green and white, and she continues to show off her flexibility in photos and on TV.
In one post, Negrotti encouraged future cheerleaders to try out for the Jets cheerleading squad, known as the Flight Crew, like she did. She said auditioning wasn't easy, but it was so worth it. "I was so nervous I almost walked out and didn't audition," she wrote in the caption. "But I did it and cheered for this amazing organization for 3 incredible years."
According to her Big Brother profile, Negrotti saw her cheer background as an advantage to her game. "I was an NFL cheerleader for the New York Jets and know how to deal with large groups of women," she said. There's no doubt her flexibility helps on The Challenge as well!
Was her Big Brother showmance with James Huling real?
During her time on Big Brother, a big part of Negrotti's game was her showmance with co-houseguest James Huling. Despite their flirtation and obvious alliance, fans thought their relationship was rather odd. When the houseguests evicted Paulie Calafiore, he claimed that "[Negrotti and Hulig's] relationship in the game is purely strategy" and didn't expect them to have a romantic relationship after the season.
However, after her eviction Negrotti insisted her feelings were genuine. "It was very romantic, but I knew I was on TV and my family and friends are all watching," she told the Hollywood Reporter. "I wanted to kiss James and cuddle with him all the time but at the end of the day...That was just not something I was comfortable enough doing on TV."
Unfortunately, a real relationship did not work out between the castmates and actually had a pretty rough ending, complete with lawyers. In April 2017, Huling uploaded a video to YouTube bashing Negrotti (though he didn't call her out by name) and their relationship. The video revealed that at one point, Negrotti had allegedly cheated on him. After posting the video, Huling tweeted that he had received a cease and desist letter from Negrotti's lawyers. Negrotti addressed the rumors in an Instagram live, saying, "I don't screw anyone else over. You can't listen to everything you read, especially when it's with bitter people. I was very good to him."
What happened between Natalie and Johnny Bananas?
Negrotti's showmance with Huling isn't the only one to go up in flames. On her first season of The Challenge, Negrotti quickly found herself in a showmance with infamous Challenge star Johnny "Bananas." While another player blew up their close relationship during the game, claiming Bananas had hooked up with Negrotti's nemesis Kayleigh Morris, it appeared their relationship was on the mend after filming commenced. "We talk all the time. She's a good friend of mine," Bananas told People after the episode of his elimination aired.
However, when Final Reckoning aired, the two appeared on be on the outs once again. "After everything that happened between me and Natalie last season ... Natalie and myself have been on an absolute roller coaster," Bananas revealed during a confessional in Episode 2 of Final Reckoning. "We have reconciled, had a falling out, reconciled again, and then apparently had another falling out just prior to coming on Final Reckoning." According to Negrotti, their relationship will likely never be too chummy again. "There are plenty of reasons why I can't trust Johnny. He just did me wrong as a friend. He proved to me that he's untrustworthy," she said, though claiming to still have a soft spot for him.
She was cyberbullied
Negrotti has proven that she's not afraid to speak out against bullying in general, and especially cyberbullying. After her falling out with Huling, Negrotti tearily appeared on an Instagram live to talk about how cyberbullying has affected her. "You guys don't understand what that does to people, saying mean, vindictive..." she starts. "I'm so tired of the cyberbullying and the harassment, people calling me a thief and a fraud, and that's just not okay."
Negrotti's decision to come out as pansexual also stemmed from a cyberbullying incident, when Kayleigh Morris allegedly outed her on social media. "She outed me in a really aggressive way and kept going. It was really homophobic in a way. To me, that's getting gay shamed," Negrotti explained to Us Weekly. "Then there was a whole bunch of people that started gay-shaming me, calling me a 'd***,' going on my social media and attacking me for being gay."
She wasn't ready for reality TV fame
As enticing as becoming famous (even just reality TV fame) might seem to those of us on the outside, those who live it say it's not always easy. This is at least the case for Negrotti, who says her time on Big Brother thrust her into a spotlight she was not quite ready to inhabit. "I had a lot of things going on after my first show," she said in a YouTube video. "I didn't really know how to handle being on a TV show and everything that came with it.
Luckily for her fans, it seems she's made peace with her reality fame, as she not only went on to compete on one season of The Challenge, but two (as of this writing!). "I feel really comfortable in my own skin," she said of how she feels about reality fame these days. "I'm okay with sharing my life with you guys now."