Credit: Laurent Bassett/Bravo
Alissa Humber says the drama with Camille Lamb affected her “mental health,” and she felt her chief stew Fraser Olender was concerned about “saving face.”
Throughout the current season of Below Deck, Camille has been called out by castmates regarding her work ethic, and many fans believe she had no interest in contributing.
The tension between Camille (deck/stew) and Alissa (second stew) began when the latter realized that the refrigerators weren’t fully stocked, which was Camille’s responsibility. But when Alissa confronted her, Camille unleashed her displeasure, which angered many fans. However, according to Alissa, the full extent of Camille’s pushback wasn’t shown on-screen.
“Nothing about Camille rubbed me the wrong way,” Alissa recounted on Another Below Deck Podcast on Patreon, via Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “When I met her, she was actually really bubbly, she was really pretty. I thought, deck/stew, she’s kind of like all over the place. That’s the perfect position for her, you know what I mean? But literally the very first night, I know that as a second stewardess, I have to delegate one or two closing tasks to her. So it’s not like all throughout the day, I’m like, ‘Do this, do that!’ One or two tasks, she already knows I’m going to give her.”
“Fraser already approved the task ahead of time,” the stew continued. “So after night one, she wasn’t stomping her feet, which is what I ended up being shown. She was cursing at me. She was gripping the rail so that it seemed like she was angry, she was tapping the pen. You know, like ‘Move on. You’re wasting my time.’ It’s very intimidating. She was intimidating me.”
“So it’s like at that point when I started to feel intimidated, it’s kind of like, OK, I’m not really vibing with you,” added Alissa. “I still tried to get on with her. And I told Fraser and he said, you gotta forgive her, move on, you know, put things to rest. And I tried, but at the end of the day, I was sacrificing my mental health.”
Though Alissa admitted Fraser was a strong and “encouraging” chief stew, she didn’t feel he stepped in with the Camille situation.
“I felt a lot of pressure with Camille, and I let him know that, ‘Hey, I’m feeling this pressure, I’m feeling this pushback. I’m not comfortable with this. Hey, I’m stressed out. Hey, I’m going to bed crying actually now,’” said Alissa.
“And it’s like there was no point where I felt like he had my back,” she shared. “I felt like it was really all about saving face. And be peaceful with everybody, right? I definitely felt like there were moments where he needed to step in and he did it. But I can’t blame him for that. I’m always trying to be a nice person as well, but it definitely burned me in the end. And I just was like such a hard worker for Fraser. So it sucked that he wasn’t defending someone who was working super hard, you know?”
Alissa revealed that she attempted to avoid any behavior that would elicit a reaction from Camille. According to the second stew, the situation gave her anxiety.
“There is desperation. There was anxiety,” said the star. “And literally sometimes you can hear my voice when I’m asking her to do something directly, I really didn’t enjoy it. I don’t know how to express to you the emotional turmoil I endured while I was there.”
Alissa continued, “When I had to say something to her I tried to write it down. Or like sing-song it. You’re supposed to say we instead of you. I tried everything. And it was like she like had a vendetta against me from the moment I met her.”
“Literally the first night you’re fighting about something like, that’s incredible,” said Alissa. “And it sucks because I’m not really a confrontational person, so it’s just like she knew what she was doing. She knew that I’m not a confrontational person at the time. I can admit I was intimidated by her. I didn’t have the biggest voice ever being 22 [years old].”
Below Deck season 10 is currently airing Monday nights at 8 p.m. EST on Bravo.