Before Below Deck Mediterranean‘s Gael Cameron and Nathan Gallagher eventually reconciled and started a family together, they had to weather some major storms in their relationship, according to the newly returned deckhand.
As she regained her sea legs on Bravado for a one-off charter during Season 10, Episode 13, Gael shared new details on why she and Nathan broke up after their romance had previously ignited during Season 9.
“After last charter season, Nathan and I traveled for six weeks,” Gael explained to a producer. “And I went back to Australia; he stayed in Ireland.”
Though she spilled that they “were trying to stay together,” at the time, ultimately, “distance did take a toll” on their relationship.
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“He ghosted me for, like, five days,” Gael revealed. “And then eventually, I was like, ‘Dude, like, just let me know you’re OK. Like, I’m here. If you don’t want to do this, it’s fine. … I’m here thinking something’s happened to you.'”
She tearfully concluded, “And that’s where he was like, ‘I don’t know if I can do this right now.’ He was someone I loved. And, yeah, you know, it hurt. Like… It hurt.”
How Nathan Gallagher explained his and Gael Cameron’s split
At multiple times during Season 10, Nathan, for his part, already admitted that he “f–ked things up” with Gael. His version of events, meanwhile, was very similar to hers.
As Nathan previously told Aesha Scott, he and Gael dated for about six months after Season 9 wrapped filming.
“After the season, we went traveling for six, seven weeks together,” Nathan elaborated. “And then we tried to maintain it, but the distance was an issue. And because of how busy I was, working 13 hours a day, it just wasn’t sustainable.”
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So, Nathan “kind of just cut it off” with Gael around Christmas 2023, he said, but they agreed to remain “friends,” nonetheless.
When he returned solo for Season 10 as bosun, Nathan was already pining for Gael, as he made clear from the start. “There is, like, a slight hole in my heart, yeah, but I’m trying not to show it,” he spilled during Episode 3, for example.
Inside Gael Cameron and Nathan Cameron’s reunion on Below Deck Med Season 10
When Gael officially returned to fill in for sick deckhand Victoria SanJuan for one charter on Below Deck Med‘s Dec. 22 episode, she and Nathan hadn’t seen each other in about 10 months. Despite his best efforts to mask his emotions, Nathan could not hide his mix of excitement and nerves, while Gael insisted that she wanted to “move forward in a very professional, platonic manner” and just be “friends” with him.
In fact, she quickly shut down Nathan when he professed, “I genuinely still think I love you, man.”
Gael’s response? “You can’t say that. … I feel like I’ve spent a lot of the last year just pretending I’m OK. Yeah. I just don’t want trouble anymore. I’m here, and then I leave in, like, two days. And then I’m gone, and then it’s done again.”
After she completed her first day on Bravado, Nathan went to “cuddle” with Gael in her bunk, where he, again, declared that he didn’t want her to leave. A conflicted Gael, for her part, again, replied, “You can’t say that.”
In a confessional, she said that potentially upsetting Nathan was a definite “con” of accepting Captain Sandy Yawn’s temporary job offer. And even though she wanted to believe Nathan, their painful history was still holding her back.
“If I’m honest, like, it’s been an emotionally tough year,” Gael added in a producer interview. “To step back into something like that would be a big risk. S–t might just repeat.”
Nathan, separately, remarked in a confessional, “It’s a hard pill to swallow, but I just want to get her to believe me.” He also told Aesha later that he would “100 percent” commit to Gael this time if she decided to give their relationship a second chance.
The rest is history, of course, so don’t miss the latest update on Gael and Nathan’s life as parents today.
