Bless her heart, Cameran Eubanks Wimberly is getting real.
The fan-favorite Southern Charm star is finally opening up about her decision to leave the Bravo reality series and so much more in her new book of essays, One Day You'll Thank Me: Essays on Dating, Motherhood, and Everything In Between.
During her six-season stint on the series, the 37-year-old was known for keeping it real and honest, which is exactly what she does in her book. Cameran details her time on The Real World and the truth about her relationship with husband Jason Wimberly, who appeared on-camera just once and yet became a storyline on the show when castmate Kathryn Dennis brought up a rumor of him cheating. (Cam denied the chatter, but it played a role in her exit from the show.)
Cameran, who is mom to 3-year-old Palmer, also dishes on her experiences with fellow Bravo reality stars (and their diva-like behavior) and Beyoncé, who revealed herself to be a fan of The Real World. Who knew?!
Here are the biggest bombshells from Cameran's book...
Cameran was just 19 years old when she filmed her first reality show, The Real World: San Diego, in 2004, and she admitted to being extremely naïve. During a night out at a club, she witnessed someone doing cocaine for the first time and when she asked what the person what they were doing, the girl replied, "F--k off."
"I immediately started crying," Cameran recalled. "I went out and told all my roommates what I had just witnessed, and they just rolled their eyes and laughed."
Cameran also reflected on the "most intriguing/risqué thing" she did, which was having two "steamy" makeout sessions in the hot tub with her roommate, Brad Fiorenza.
"Of course, the cameras caught us both times. I was absolutely wasted and I'm pretty sure he was, too," she wrote. "The Southern belle had a crush on the bad boy from Chicago! I'm sure this is what the producers were hoping for when they cast us. When we finally gave in to our primal urges and made out, I know they were high-fiving each other in the control room. It never evolved into deep feelings, though, and Brad never tried anything else."
Now, Cameran considers Brad "a dear friend" and still keeps in touch with former castmates Jamie Chung and Randy Barry. "We have talked about trying to arrange a roommates' reunion, because we'd love to see each other again," she shared.
After her time on The Real World, Cameran landed several job opportunities, including guest-hosting Girls Gone Wild, a decision she soon regretted after discovering it was "pretty much soft-core porn."
"I was in shock by the whole thing. Mildly fascinated, but mostly in total shock," she explained. "The fact that people were willing to have sex on camera floored me. I was mortified. I ended up crying and begging the girls not to take off their clothes—not exactly the role of the host. In fact, I think that was the exact opposite of my job."
Cameran was then hired by the NFL Network to be a sideline correspondent, interviewing athletes and celebrities, including Tom Brady, John Legend, Mary J. Blige and Beyoncé.
"She actually told me she watched our season of The Real World and was a huge fan. 'Wait, what?' I thought," Cam recalled of her meeting with the icon. "I was shaking so much that the microphone was moving when I talked to her. If you think I'm lying, I have the awful and embarrassing video footage to prove it."
Ultimately, Cameran's contract wasn't renewed, with the reality star admitting she was "awful" at the job.
A decade after her stint on The Real World, a hesitant Cameran was approached by Whitney Sudler-Smith about joining a Bravo reality series, then titled Southern Gentlemen, to be "the voice of reason," to serve as a sort of Wendy to Charleston's many Peter Pans.
"My role was to be kind of a sounding board/voice of reason for the guys," she detailed. "I gave it to the guys like I saw it, but I tried to always do it in a lighthearted manner. I saw them as my brothers, and I still think of them that way."
But she knew those men would deliver a hit show after her first time hanging out with Shep Rose and Craig Conover.
"Within five minutes, I knew that the show would probably take off. Both Shep and Craig had that TV 'it factor,'" she explained. "They were both good-looking and tall (a rarity in Charleston), with charismatic and gregarious personalities. Although Shep talked on the phone for half the meal, I liked them both instantly. They also split the check and didn't make me pay, which I thought was super nice. We left the dinner with an attitude of Well, here goes nothing!"
But Cameran had one edict she set for herself after her first experience filming a reality TV series left her very sick and burned out from the traveling, drinking and long hours: "A self-imposed two-drink maximum rule."
"I actually encouraged my costars to do the same, but it fell on deaf ears," she wrote, going on to admit she did get drunk "about four times in the course of six years...I'm fairly certain I fell down in every scene."
Southern Charm fans were surprised and saddened when Cameran revealed on Instagram she would not be returning for season seven, along with co-stars Chelsea Meissner and Naomie Olindo.
"My mantra with social media if you are on a reality show: You don't like the heat? Get out of the kitchen. Well, get out of the kitchen is exactly what I did after season six," Cam wrote of her exit. "At that point, I had a child and since becoming a mother, my priorities had changed. I also felt like I was at a different place in my life. It was time to move on."
She also went on to address the "false accusations" and "nasty rumors" that "can be started for the sake of a 'good show,'" clearly alluding to last spring's the accusations that her husband, Jason Wimberly, had been unfaithful. "It just started to feel a bit icky."
Still, that doesn't mean Cam regrets her six-season stint on the show, writing, "That said, all in all, Southern Charm was a very positive experience. I would go back and do it all over again."
However, Cameran revealed, "I'm pretty certain I am done with reality TV, though. I've got two shows under my belt, and at this point I am enjoying a simpler life without a camera in my face."
After being set up on a blind date, Cameran revealed she knew by their second outing—a Prince concert—that she was going to marry Jason, which she admitted was the "smartest decision" she's ever made.
"It was on that date that I knew I was going to marry this man," she wrote. "He let his guard down a bit and I got to see his humorous side. The chemistry started kicking in. Now I really wanted to go on a third date. And, well, the rest is history."
Jason proposed after three years of dating and the couple got married in 2014, the same year Southern Charm premiered. But fans were puzzled as to why Cameran never mentioned Jason during the first season.
"But from the moment I did, people wondered why he wasn't on the show," she wrote of bringing him up in season two. "Everyone thought he didn't appear because he didn't approve of it or didn't like my castmates. That is simply not true. Jason was and is actually friends with most of them—AND he was the one who encouraged me to do Southern Charm each season. But Jason is a very private person and not everyone wants to be on TV."
Jason finally appeared on-screen in what would end up being Cam's final scene in season six.
"I think he was a little curious to see how the whole process happened, because the day before he said, 'Why don't I just come with you?'" she recalled. "It was a party, so I knew it wouldn't be anything too deep or drama-filled and would be nothing more than one scene. I figured, Why not? Let's do it. So Jason came with me. He did refuse to wear a microphone, though."
After becoming pregnant in between seasons, Cameran wasn't sure she wanted Bravo cameras to document her pregnancy. But after Jason encouraged her to do it, Cam signed on for season five, with two caveats.
"The birth would not be filmed. Of course, production really wanted to film it and my experience, but I just could not imagine having a camera crew in my hospital room," she detailed of welcoming daughter Palmer Corrine in November 2017. "The second caveat was that I would be given at least two weeks camera free after the birth. I knew how important and emotionally delicate the first couple of weeks home with Palmer would be, and I really wanted to have that time privately to bond with her and adjust to becoming a new mother."
While she's no longer on the show, Cameran shared she was still close with several of her co-stars, including best friend Chelsea, a Survivor she brought onto Southern Charm.
"We were roommates when I was dating Jason and have known each other for a long time," she revealed. "When the producers were looking for another female cast member, I thought she would be a great fit."
Cameran is also still close with Whitney, whom she still talks to almost every day. "We were kind of partners in crime while filming Southern Charm," she wrote of her friendship with Whitney. "The good news is that Jason loves Whitney just as much as I do."
As for Shep and Craig, Cam talks to them weekly. "Shep calls me for girl advice all the time. I feel honored that he actually listens to me, because Shep doesn't listen to many people," she detailed. "Craig and I argue and fight nonstop, but we still consider each other close friends."
While Cam didn't name names, she did offer a bit of insight into the Bravo world through her experience at BravoCon in November 2019.
"It was also cool to meet so many of the other Bravo talent who I had seen on TV," she wrote. "Some were just like I imagined they would be and some were complete assholes. I won't name names, but let's just say I was very disappointed by some of their behavior."
So who was she calling out? "I watched a couple of the real housewives act as if they were legitimately A-list celebrities."
She did acknowledge who the nicest Housewives were--Denise Richards and Teddi Mellencamp--and picked Million Dollar Listing as the sweetest cast.
While she didn't name her ex-boyfriend, Cameran did go into detail about her longterm relationship with Jeremy Bloom, an Olympic gold medalist.
"My first serious relationship started at twenty-one with a guy I met in Cancún, Mexico, of all places," she recalled. "After The Real World, MTV hired me to go down to Cancún for a month and host spring break parties with several other cast members...The guy I met was on vacation with friends."
She continued, "He was a professional athlete, and I ended up getting engaged to him three years later, at the age of twenty-four."
But Cameran wanted to focus on her own career and not follow her fiancée around and knew almost immediately they wouldn't get married.
"We broke up a few months after got engaged," she concluded.
While Cameran has a sarcastic and relatable approach to her own social media pages, that doesn't mean negative comments has never gotten to her.
"Around season four of the show, a woman commented on one of my pictures and said, 'How can you be married to a doctor and not be able to afford to fix your teeth?'" she wrote. "Can you imagine writing that to a total stranger? It actually made me cry and is a comment that I will never forget. I had braces as a kid, but my bottom teeth had shifted. It never bothered me until I read that comment. I couldn't get it out of my mind and I let it get to me. So much so that I actually went to see a cosmetic dentist to get Invisalign to fix my teeth. Yes, that comment cost me $6,600."
Good thing she's got money, she's in magazines…
One Day You'll Thank Me is available now.
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