The two houseguests opened up to ET about their tense showdown and how they'd like to move forward.
Big Brother season 23 had its fair share of memorable moments, bizarre confrontations and awkward exchanges -- but nothing quite so tense as Kyland Young's verbal altercation with Xavier Prather during his controversial from the house after the season's penultimate eviction.
On Thursday, one day after Xavier was declared the winner of Season 23 by a unanimous vote, ET's Kevin Frazier spoke with the members of the season's historic alliance, The Cookout -- including Xavier, Kyland, Derek Frazier, Azah Awasum, Hannah Chaddha and Tiffany Mitchell -- and asked Kyland and Xavier about the tense exchange directly.
According to Kyland, his remarks were misconstrued and misinterpreted, and he didn't have any idea that was the case until much later.
"When you leave the house, you have no vision of what the conversation is inside. So, like, when I walked out, I literally was in my head like, 'He knows what I'm talking about. So, it's fine.' And then afterwards you get out of the house and you find out, like, oh wait, this is seen as something that is extremely dramatic."
The confrontation came when Xavier and Derek -- who wound up the season's runner-up -- agreed on a plan to oust Kyland and bring Azah to the final three. While it was a betrayal of Kyland and Xavier's final two pact, which they'd dubbed The Gentlemen, the move was motivated solely by gameplay strategy.
However, Kyland seemed to make things personal when he was leaving the house, and brought up Xavier's 4-year-old nephew, Kobe. For context, Xavier's brother passed away at age 31 in April, and Xavier was very open throughout the season about wanting to win to make sure his nephew never wants for anything growing up.
In the dramatic exit, Kyland mentioned Kobe, and made a somewhat vague reference to Xavier not living up to his nephew's namesake, Kobe Bryant -- at which point Xavier pointedly wanted Kyland not to mention his nephew again.
To which, Kyland said, "I believe thаt if your nephew hаs no one to look up to, thаt is going to figure out how to rаise him аnd teаch him how to be а mаn."
Before things turned physical, host Julie Chen Moonves demanded Kyland leave the house, while Azah and Derek tried to distance the two.
Kyland told ET that he wasn't, in fact, trying to imply anything about Xavier's nephew, but instead was "referring to a conversation him and I had" earlier in the season about being role models.
"That conversation had nothing to do with X as a person, X as a player, or anything like that. It was all very much like, 'This is what you and I had talked about within regards to that family member, that's why I was bringing it up,'" Kyland said. "So as far as when I left, I was like, 'Yeah, they'll understand what I was talking about.' And then obviously as I learned in the house, as I learned outside the house, sometimes, when you say something and all of it's not heard, or all of it's not understood, you don't have an opportunity [to explain]."
"So, I just felt bad because after, I'm out of the house and learning from people like, 'No, this is how it was received. This is how it was thought.' I'm like, 'Dang, I'm sorry,'" he added. "That's all I've been looking forward to do for me and him, just to kind of make sure that everybody knows that there was no disrespect."
Xavier, meanwhile, remained diplomatic in his response, sharing, "What he said and how I perceived it seemed to be two different things."
"We've already discussed on finale night that we were gonna sit down, man to man, and have a conversation, hopefully come to an understanding as to why what happened happened, maybe get some closure around what happened, just to get some clarity," Xavier shared. "Then move forward in a positive way."
"Every single person sitting here was a part of history, and I wouldn't want any of that to be fractured because of a misunderstanding," Xavier added, referring to The Cookout's monumental success in their efforts to see Big Brother crown it's first Black winner. "Kyland was a big part in all of us making it to the final 6 as was Tiffany, as was Hannah, Azah, Big D and myself. We all had a part in making history, and this is a bond that's gonna last us a lifetime, and I wouldn't want anything like that to be fractured without at least having some type of conversation."
Check out the video below to hear more from ET's big conversation with The Cookout following this historic season of Big Brother!
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