Key Takeaways
- Zach Rance’s close friendship with Frankie Grande led to a decade of terrifying death threats.
- Fans disappointed that Zach and Frankie weren’t a couple escalated to harassment and threats.
- Zach has been subjected to relentless harassment and threats, fearing for his safety and that of his family.
Reality TV might bring fame, but for Big Brother alum Zach Rance, it also brought a decade of terrifying death threats. Zach, who hit the small screen nearly ten years ago, is now making a desperate plea for help after enduring years of relentless harassment—much of it stemming from his close friendship with pop royalty Ariana Grande’s brother, Frankie Grande.
Zach Says His Life Has Been A Nightmare Since The Show
In a YouTube video posted on Sunday, August 25, Zach, now 33, candidly revealed that he’s been living a nightmare since his time on the show.
“This is me asking for help to all the people that follow me, to all the Big Brother fans, to anybody that’s ever watched a season of Big Brother,” he pleaded. Zach went on to describe how he’s been on the receiving end of constant harassment since Big Brother aired in 2014, with his tormentors threatening not just him, but also his family and friends.
So, what’s got these trolls so worked up? It all circles back to Zach’s time in the Big Brother house, where he struck up a friendship with Frankie Grande, the older brother of pop sensation Ariana Grande.
Fans were obsessed with the duo, even nicknaming them “Zankie” and hoping for a post-show romance. But Zach quickly set the record straight—there was no romance, just a strong friendship.
“Him and I had a very close friendship in the house,” Zach reflected, noting that many viewers assumed they’d become a couple after the show. However, reality didn’t match up to the fantasy, and their “showmance” fizzled out once the cameras stopped rolling.
Fans Were Disappointed Zach And Frankie Weren’t A Couple
It turns out some fans were more than a little upset that Zach and Frankie didn’t become an item, and that disappointment took a dark turn. After Zach’s contact information leaked, he started receiving a flood of hateful emails and texts. These messages, according to Zach, ranged from the cruelly accusatory—like calling him “closeted”—to downright dangerous.
In 2020, Zach publicly came out as bisexual, but that didn’t stop the haters. “These emails I was getting didn’t stop,” he explained. Instead of dying down, the messages grew nastier, with some even urging him to take his own life.
Zach has now accumulated binders filled with these vile threats, documenting years of torment. He estimates he’s received around 5,000 emails filled with hate. But what’s worse is that these threats have escalated in severity, leaving Zach genuinely fearing for his safety and that of his loved ones.
“These threats started getting more harsh, worse, more direct, more specific and it came to the point where I didn’t really know what to do,” he admitted, sharing his fear that someone might actually follow through with the violence they’ve been threatening.
And it’s not just Zach who’s been targeted. His family has also been dragged into the crosshairs, with his father and grandmother receiving anti-Semitic slurs via email. Despite his efforts, Zach has been unable to track down the anonymous sender, leaving him and his family in a state of constant anxiety.
Now, after a decade of living in fear, Zach is calling on the Big Brother community, especially those who were once part of the Zankie fandom, to help him put an end to this madness. He’s hoping that someone out there might have information that could lead to identifying the individual behind these malicious threats.
Let’s hope that someone out there can help Zach find the peace he deserves and finally put this terrifying chapter of his life to rest.
