Zach Rance has received countless emails and texts filled with vitriol after his ‘failed’ fling with Frankie Grande that encouraged him to come out as bisexual. He makes a plea to fans to help him stop the hate.
Zach Rance is a Big Brother alum, featuring as a houseguest on season 16 of the US show. Zach was popular with fans due to his quirky behaviors and seemingly-romantic relationship with Frankie, Arianna Grande’s brother. Fans were deeply invested in the maintenance of ‘Zankie’ and since their relationship went quiet have flooded Rance’s inbox with a flurry of hate mail. Overwhelmed Zach is now making a plea to help make the messages stop.
‘I’m, like, 85 percent straight’
Rance revealed in an interview with Us Weekly, in 2020, that he was bisexual. The life coach divulged he went to third base with his former onscreen romance, Grande, just over a month after they left the house.
“It was Ariana Grande’s Halloween party. Kind of hard to forget,” he recalled. “It was me, Ariana Grande, Frankie, Big Sean — she was dating Big Sean at the time. Very low-key party. All of her dancers were there. The party went really well.”
The 31-year-old disclosed later in the evening, the two reality stars hooked up in a closet until Rance cut it short. At the time Rance still thought of himself as ‘straight’, but a further same-sex hook up with a photographer, during an underwear shoot, made him accept things about himself.
“Now I’m just like, ‘Yeah, I’m f**king bisexual,’” Rance said. “I prefer women, but this is where I’m at. I’m, like, 85 percent straight.”
The Economics graduate ‘came out’ during an event with The Mental Health Collective in 2020. He mentioned Frankie saying they “got super, super close” during the CBS show and he “fell in love with who [Frankie] was as a person.”
Since going public with his sexuality, Rance has received countless messages from fans across social media.
Rance was scared bullies were ‘going to physically harm me or my family’
However, it isn’t all support and love the star has received since becoming an open member of the LGBTQ+ community.
The reality star released a video on YouTube on August 28 issuing a “cry for help” after receiving thousands of threatening and harassing messages since the Big Brother competition.
The video details at length the bullying he’s faced, much of which is to do with fans’ disappointment he never ended up in a relationship with Grande.
Fans were really invested in the “Zankie” fling and have repeatedly expressed their disappointments over the failed flirtationship, Zach explains.
Providing samples of the deluge of harassment, it contains homophobic slurs, antisemitic insults and direct death threats. Zach, loaded with stacks of paper, says he has printed out four months of the horrific emails, filling four binders.
Initially, Rance hoped the outrage would die down, especially since it has been ten years since the show aired, and four years since Zach ‘came out’. Unfortunately, the bullying has continued and seems to be picking up pace at an alarming and severe rate.
“It came to the point where I didn’t know what to do. I was kind of scared that whoever this was that was sending me the emails was going to physically harm me or my family.” Rance added, with one email threatening to harm his younger brother, Peyton.
Now Zach is holding a ‘call-to-action’ for all “Zankie” fans, requesting that any participants in Big Brother groups on social platforms can shed some light on the identity of these cyberbullies.
If you are affected by any issues raised in the article or would like someone to speak to, please call the Samaritans for free on 116 123. You can also email them at [email protected] or visit samaritans.org to find your nearest branch in the UK. In the US, please visit Samaritans USA for more information.
You can also contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (8255) or text 741741 to get in touch with the Crisis Text Line. Americans can now call or text 988 to reach out and speak to a counselor.
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