Credit: Charles Sykes/Bravo
Captain Lee Rosbach revealed his exit from Below Deck “came right out of left field,” and he “did not see [it] coming.” Before the reported firing, Lee was temporarily forced to leave the ship in season 10 due to medical issues.
The star also explained what the network told him regarding the exit. Recently, it was reported that Captain Kerry Titheradge from Below Deck Adventure would replace him for the upcoming season.
Speaking with Us Weekly, the captain revealed he had no idea they were not asking him back for season 11.
“That came right out of left field. I did not see that one coming at all,” said Lee, who then shared what Bravo told him.
“’We would like to move in a new direction,’” the captain recalled. “But I mean, that’s kind of a cliche that everybody uses when they find themselves in that situation where they’re going to let somebody go. ‘I’m going to move in a new direction. We want to freshen it up a little.’ [They are] tired cliches that get overused.”
He also told the outlet, “If they found that they needed me back on the show, I’d go back. I’ve done it for 10 years and I would kind of like to — if I’m going to make an exit — do it on different terms.”
The alum shared what he would change if he could go back.
“I regret that I couldn’t do the whole season. I really do. I never quit anything in my life, and for me to walk off that boat was hard. To admit that I’d been defeated — or at least knocked down — and getting [out] was not [ideal],” he explained. “I had to get back up and get back to the boat, which I accomplished and felt really, really good about. But having to tell the crew that I had to leave because at that point, I was more of a liability than I was an asset — it’s hard to admit to yourself.”