Ben Willoughby Reacts to Leigh-Ann Smith Saying He “Cut All Ties” with “No Explanation”
Get the latest update on the Below Deck love triangle saga involving Camille Lamb.
After Ben Willoughby revealed what happened with Camille Lamb once the Below Deck cameras stopped rolling for Season 10, Leigh-Ann Smith decided to share an update of her own — and it just so happened to involve Ben.
According to her, just three weeks after Ben traveled to the Dominican Republic to meet Camille and “pursue” their “connection,” he “reached out to me to say that things ended between them.”
Ben admitted as much in his initial Instagram post — shared on March 21, hours before Leigh-Ann took to Instagram herself — explaining that despite having “a spark comparable to that of a primary school crush,” he and Camille ultimately decided a relationship “wasn’t meant to be.” His story ended there, but Leigh-Ann’s further elaborated on what supposedly went down after Ben left the Dominican Republic.
“I happened to be in Miami at the time so we decided to link up,” Leigh-Ann wrote. “We decided to rent an apartment and lived together for just over a month in [Florida] … I was there for him as he was getting through his breakup and was a shoulder to lean on. I did everything in my will to put a smile on his face every day even though it was killing my own mental health. We also spoke about working and traveling together and Ben possibly coming to [South Africa] with me.”
Ben, however, ultimately took a job elsewhere. Leigh-Ann said they stayed in touch for a while, but eventually, he “cut all ties with me with no explanation.”
“I’ve reached out to him on numerous occasions to find out what I have done wrong and why I deserve this reaction but yet he fails to reply,” Leigh-Ann continued. “There is no reason to treat a person the way he treated me. What did I do to deserve this? After all I did to be a good friend to him.”
She went on to explain that while she was initially heartbroken, she has since “come to peace with not getting an answer.” This is where Ben’s newest comment comes in, as he took to his Instagram Stories shortly after Leigh-Ann shared her post.
First calling out Leigh-Ann by name, Ben wrote, “I had to cut her out of my life as my mental space was taking a toll. I needed space to actually have my own thoughts, make my own decisions [instead] of someone trying to force me to fall for them. I felt like I was gaslighted into thinking I was wrong for loving Camille and that’s not what someone who says they have [your] best interest at heart would do.”
“I followed my heart and am responsible for my own happiness,” Ben concluded. “[Y]ou have to be selfish in those situations.”
Leigh-Ann has yet to respond to Ben’s Story, but she did say in an Instagram Live on March 22 that she and Ben have not spoken.
