By: John Powell – GlobalTV.com

Nobody was more surprised than Josh Martinez when host Julie Chen announced that he was the winner of Big Brother 19.

“I am living the dream and I cannot believe it!” Josh told Global.

Josh eked out a narrow victory beating veteran Paul Abrahamian by a vote of 5 to 4.

Paul lost last year’s Big Brother USA series by the same exact vote count.

Josh believes Paul burned many jury votes because he didn’t own up to the way he played the game especially when he forced ties on eviction night and tried to pass the blame onto the HoHs (Head of Households) at the time.

“He lost because he did not own up to some of the moves that he made. He played a great game and I knew that all along. I knew that I had to take a shot at him but I knew jury was going to be pissed at me because I pissed most of them off. I think if he would have owned up to more I think he would have won,” Josh admitted.

That reasoning is why Josh decided to take Paul over Christmas Abbott to the end, to the shock of many fans at the time. Josh says he knew Christmas was more popular with the jury and that he and Paul had ticked off so many of them. He noticed things like Jason Dent and Alex Ow hugging Christmas as they left the house. Although he thought he had a good read on the jurors, he never thought his arch-enemies in the house Mark Clines and Cody Nickson would have ever voted for him.

“I was extremely surprised! I was not expecting that! I thought they were going to vote for Paul! The night before, I was just hoping that people would see I played a straight-forward game. If I wanted you out, I let you know I wanted you out. I would even draw that line before we would even compete. The fact that they respected that and that is why they voted for me is huge! To both of those meatballs, thank you! I hold no grudges against them at all and I cannot wait to have a conversation with them and let them know that was just a game. I wish them the best even though I don’t understand why Cody won America’s Favourite Houseguest but I am happy for him,” said Josh.

Cody, Mark and Josh were at the centre of many of the nasty confrontations this season with some even accusing Josh of bullying others, especially during one afternoon when Cody and Jessica were berated by the others in the backyard for hours on end.

Josh claims he never bullied anyone and was just standing up for himself.

“I never personally attacked anybody. I never said anything personal. Everything for me was game. I hit people with straight facts and they hit me with personal. My agenda that day was so they wouldn’t use the Halting Hex. I wanted Cody to think this kid is so obnoxious and crazy, I just want to leave. I can only speak to what I did. I don’t know why others felt the need to jump in and say 500 things. That was out of my control. I did feel for them and I expressed that while I was in the house. I told them people said things they shouldn’t have said but I can only speak for myself,” he recalled.

Despite everything that transpired between them Josh does respect his adversaries.

“What I will say is that the strength that they both showed I commend them for that. It is really hard being in that house. If anything, I learned from the mistakes I made. I didn’t mean to personal attack or bully anyone,” he said. “At the end of the day, I am not mad at anyone. I don’t hold a grudge. We will all learn and grow from the experience. I wish all of my Houseguests the very best.”

Whether some fans and the Houseguests saw Josh as a bully or not what many did is underestimate him because of those antics in the house. Josh’s strategy of admitting his gameplay to the evicted Houseguests in his goodbye messages in the Diary Room was a stroke of genius and severely undermined Paul’s strategy.

“Being a fan of the show, I know the game doesn’t end when someone is voted out. I knew he was playing his game and protecting his game, working it from all angles so he got no blood on his hands. I played a pretty straight-forward and honest game and I wasn’t going to stop that,” Josh explained.

“When people were walking out I was letting them know that they had a perception of what is going on but I made my decisions because I was sticking loyal to my word. I wasn’t lying. I was being completely honest. People can be upset about it but it is still part of the game. The game doesn’t stop. You can work it from all angles,” the Big Brother winner advised.

And although it became the catch-phrase of the season, many didn’t understand the fascination Josh has with turning Italian cuisine into goofy insults. Josh has a simple answer for all the lasagna brains out there.

“I was one of the few people from New Jersey and I love mob movies growing up but I didn’t think it was going to be so catchy. Words like loser are mean words. So I was going to have fun with it and say…You are a meatball! I had fun with it and tried to turn a negative into a positive,” he laughed.

READER ALERT: Big Brother fanatics need not wait too long for their next reality fix. The new season of Survivor begins next Wednesday night on Global TV and Big Brother USA returns with a Celebrity Edition this winter and Big Brother Canada is also returning for a new season in 2018.