'Below Deck' Summary: Cat Baugh Describes 'Trauma' of Religious Cult

In the new episode of Below deck, Cat Baugh opened up about her “trauma” from her time in a religious cult.

“It's pretty clear that Cat is a very sensitive soul. I feel like she might want to be heard a little more,” Fraser Olender told the cameras on Monday, February 19, after noticing Cat was having trouble adjusting to the interiors team. “I never had anyone to take care of me in this scary industry. And so I want to be that for someone else.”

Cat then surprised Fraser when she revealed that Baugh was not her real last name.

“I was in a foster home. My father died when I was nine from multiple sclerosis. And then my mother died 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 groomed by a controlling group of people, adding: “I don't talk to the family I lived with because they were like a cult religion.”

Cat's foster family would not allow her to keep 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 such an extreme religion that they wouldn't even let me speak to my own biological brother.”

In a confessional, Cat gave 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 the ages of thirteen to eighteen, I was part of the culture, life and dynamics of this family.”

Cat said she felt like her foster family didn't really care about her well-being.

“Everything was for praise in the church and I felt like I was just a pillar for them,” she noted. “It was almost as if they wanted to forget my previous life. I felt so oppressed and 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 the relationship with my biological brother, they said, 'No. We do not support that,” she continued. “When I turned 18, I decided to choose my brother and choose my life. I decided to live for myself and that's when I became the most independent. Now me and my brother are so close. He is like my best friend.”

Below deck viewers have watched Cat struggle to find her place on the interior design team since joining the franchise in January 2024. Earlier this season, Cat came into conflict with fellow stews Barbie Pascual And Xandi Olivier. She gave more details during Monday's episode about how her childhood influenced her work ethic.

“When you grow up with a lot of trauma, you become very insecure about yourself. The foster family I was with did a lot of things that made me feel like I just wasn't perfect,” she recalled. “You had to be perfect. So how people perceive my work ethic is very important to me. I don't want to be seen as weak. It literally gives me great anxiety.”

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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 path to becoming chief steward.

“My first job on a boat was a mess for the crew. That means I was a crew member of the crew. We're talking about the bottom of the barrel. On my first day the chief engineer had discovered that I was gay and was very homophobic,” Fraser explains. “While I was washing dishes in the sink, he poured his scalding hot tea that I had just made for him all over my hands and that was my first day on the hunt.”

He continued: “And I looked at him and I said to myself, 'Keep f–king going. Because one day none of this will matter. And you're going to be at the top. And one day you will fire him.” And one day I did just that.”

Below deck season 11 airs on Bravo Mondays at 9pm ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.