When Gael Cameron had an opportunity to sign up for Season Nine of the beloved reality show Below Deck Meditteranean, it was a no-brainer. But the last thing she expected was to find herself smack-bang in a potential cheating scandal unravelling with each episode.
“I was looking for a new job regardless and I loved the whole concept of the show because when I used to say I was a yachtie, no one would know what I was talking about,” Gael told PEDESTRAIN.TV.
“When you say Below Deck, people would be like ‘oh okay’. It was a way that we could finally show people what we did.”
While we’re only four episodes into the latest season, the main storyline Gael has found herself in the centre of has been her flirty friendship with fellow deckhand Nathan Gallagher. With free-flowing banter, the pair got along like a house on fire.
“We just have really good laughs together. You know when you meet someone and it feels like an instant friendship? That’s how I was with Aesha [Scott] and Nathan,” Gael reflects.
“It was just like we could bag each other out but nothing was taken seriously. Everything was in good fun. Whenever I needed a hand with anything, he always helped me out. He had my back, and I just felt like I had someone on the boat who was an actual friend looking out for me I think that’s why our friendship grew so quickly and so fast — the banter, stability and knowing we had each other’s backs.”
Now, I personally think that there isn’t enough acknowledgement of how much pressure the crew on these shows are under. It’s an incredibly intense job, and as a result, friendships and romances are expedited. But with the friendship between Gael and Nathan developing so rapidly, it was no wonder that fans at home began to suspect they were more than friends.
The catch? When Gael joined Motoryacht Mustique, she had a boyfriend on another boat. JUICY!
The real kicker was when Gael and Nathan were caught trying to meet up for “strawberries” without the cameras following them. Unfortunately for the pair, they were sprung and it looked like they were up to no good. As the episodes progressed, it also seemed like “strawberry” was a code for something a little bit more… sexy. But, according to Gael, that wasn’t the case at all. In fact, it was just a joke that went awry.
“At the beginning of episode one, I steal a strawberry. We were low on provisions, I shouldn’t have been stealing any guest foods but I had to try it and I was like ‘holy crap, this is the best strawberry I’ve ever eaten’,” Gael explained.
It was then that Nathan dared her to steal one for him to try. Due to the limits on the food for the charter, Gael had to be sneaky but every time she tried to pinch one during the day, someone else would almost catch her. When the crew had gone to bed after a night out, she thought she’d found her moment.
“In my head, I felt like I was doing something really bad. I thought I was stealing from the boat and doing something really naughty,” she continued.
“So I went to the fridge to get a strawberry and saw the camera crew and went, ‘holy shit, I’m in trouble’.”
While Gael maintains that the dynamic duo were literally talking about a strawberry, she says they started to take the piss out of producers who thought they were using a codeword.
“We thought it was hilarious. It was an absolute joke. We would just say it to kind of mess with production,” she said, admitting their little joke “totally backfired” on them in the end.
As for the cheating allegations? Gael didn’t answer straight up, acknowledging that we’ve got plenty more of Season Nine to go. However, she did say that it’s been a bit difficult watching back the season so far.
“It was a bit tough at the beginning because I was like ‘this isn’t true to what happened’ and ‘these messages are out of context’,” she explained.
“But I also always take responsibility for my actions. I probably shouldn’t have done that anyway, it was a bit ‘how you going’. So I feel like definitely have to cop that one on the chin. I feel like it was rough but hopefully, as the season progresses people will get to know me a little bit better, and hopefully won’t hold it against me.”
You can watch Below Deck Mediterranean on BINGE and Hayu.
