When Gael Cameron first arrived onboard Mustique, she was an eager deckhand in a committed relationship. Now, she’s still the same hard worker — albeit with a different relationship status.
During Season 9, Episode 9 of the Below Deck Mediterranean After Show, Gael offered more information on her sad breakup that went down during the Below Deck Mediterranean charter season. As fans might recall, Gael received a text from her boyfriend (an engineer she previously worked with on another boat) during a crew night out that ultimately ended things.
“This is so sad. He taught me a lot. Ah, f-ck me. Why am I so emotional?” she said, beginning to tear up while chatting with Aesha Scott. “I really wanted to make it work. It was a relationship I learned a lot from, and I learned a lot about myself from this relationship. I really valued him as a person.”
According to Gael, it was hard to realize her boyfriend couldn’t handle her work schedule.
“Coming on this boat and realizing that he couldn’t hold it out for two weeks, let alone six … I was like, ‘Please just hold out for me. Please be patient with me. Please understand that I can’t be on my phone all the time,'” she explained. “I was really trying to make time. Every morning I’d wake up and give him a voice message. I’d go on deck, I’d go on a ten minute break to change clothes and send him another one. I’d go on break, I’d have like a five hour rest, and I’d spend an hour of that on the phone with him to make sure I spoke to him every night.”
Gael also noted that it was hard her boyfriend couldn’t think of what she was doing as a job. She couldn’t be on her phone all the time at work. And while she tried to hold it together, it got to a point where she’d built up resentment.
“It was very hard for me to say ‘I love you’ and hard for me to put all this effort in because I could do no right.”
Why did Gael Cameron and her boyfriend break up?
Further elaborating on her split, Gael noted that everything wasn’t perfect in their relationship even when she was off the boat.
“I saw traits in him from early on that I wasn’t a fan of,” she explained. “Like, I nearly lost my job ’cause of him. But I think, because I was stuck on a boat with him, and there was nowhere for me to wander, he could win me back.”
Aesha Scott’s reaction to Gael Cameron’s breakup
Aesha, who saw everything go down from the outside, told Gael that she could tell she was struggling.
“My heart just went out for you so much, because you shouldn’t have to be dealing with this sh-t while you’re in one of the most difficult situations in your life,” Aesha told her coworker on the Below Deck Med After Show. “As your partner, he might have his umbrages — which is fine — but in the meantime, support you, because you’re going through something very difficult.”
To hear more, tune into the clip above and watch Below Deck Mediterranean on Mondays at 9/8c. Episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
