Below Deck’s Cat Baugh Felt ‘Suppressed’ After Being in Religious Cult as a Teen: ‘A Lot of Trauma’
On the new episode of Below Deck, Cat Baugh opened up about her “trauma” from her time in a religious cult.
"It is quite evident that Cat is a very sensitive soul. I feel like she might want to be heard a bit more," Fraser Olender told the cameras on Monday, February 19, after noticing Cat had trouble adjusting to the interior team. "I never had someone to look after me in this scary industry. And so I want to be that for someone else."
Cat subsequently surprised Fraser when she revealed that Baugh wasn't her real last name.
"I was in foster care. My dad passed away when I was nine from Multiple sclerosis. And then my mom passed away when I was 13 just in her sleep. It was very sudden and no [they don't know what it was]," she explained. "So me and my brother were thrown into the system and separated."
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According to Cat, she was cared for by a controlling group of people, adding, "The family I lived with I don't talk to because they were like a cult religion."
Cat's foster family wouldn't allow her to remain in touch with her brother.
"We were [in the same state]. But they wouldn't even let me talk to him because he wasn't religious," she continued. "It was that extreme of a religion that they wouldn't even let me speak to my own biological brother."
In a confessional, Cat offered more details about her difficult home life, sharing, “So I grew up in Orange County, California, with a foster family in a place called Yorba Linda. From 13 to 18, I was a part of this family's culture and life and dynamic."
Cat said she felt as if her foster family didn't actually care about her well-being.
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"Everything was for praise in the church and I felt like I was just a prop to them," she noted. "It was almost like they wanted to forget my past life. I felt so suppressed and I never stood up for myself."
It wasn't until Cat turned 18 that she was able to take control of her life.
"Because I wanted to continue a relationship with my biological brother, they were like, 'No. We don't support that,'" she continued. "Once I turned 18, I decided to choose my brother and choose my life. I decided to live for me and that's when I became the most independent. Now me and my brother are so close. He's like my best friend."
Below Deck viewers have seen Cat struggle to find her place on the interior team since she joined the franchise in January 2024. Earlier this season, Cat ended up at odds with fellow stews Barbie Pascual and Xandi Olivier. She offered more details during Monday's episode on how her childhood affected her work ethic.
"Just growing up with a lot of trauma, it makes you very insecure about yourself. The foster family I was with did a lot of things that made me feel like I was just not perfect," she recalled. "You had to be perfect. So how people view my work ethic is very important to me. I don't want to be viewed as weak. It literally makes me have major anxiety."
Cat wasn't the only one to share shocking details about her past. In his own confessional, Fraser revealed the obstacles he faced on his way to becoming a chief steward.
"My first job on a boat, I was a crew mess stew. Which means that I was a crew member to the crew. We are talking bottom of the barrel bottom. On my first day, the chief engineer had found out that I was gay and was very homophobic," Fraser explained. "Whilst I was washing dishes in the sink, he poured his boiling hot tea that I just made for him over my hands and that was my first day in yachting."
He continued: "And I looked at him and I told myself, 'Keep f—king going. Because one day, none of this will f—king matter. And you are going to be at the top. And one day you will get him fired.' And one day, I did."
Below Deck season 11 airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes will stream the next day on Peacock.
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