Who Is Cam Ayala? New Details On 'The Bachelorette' Contestant Heading To 'Bachelor In Paradise'
He was ditched by Hannah B. Will he find love in Paradise?
Instagram The new season of Bachelor in Paradise is getting ready to kick-off and the cast includes past fan favorites and some less than favorite characters.
One of the men on the show will be Cam Ayala, the rapping software sales pro from Texas who alternately charmed and annoyed Hannah Brown on The Bachelorette. While he was sent home mid-season, he’s ready to come back and try his luck on the beach this summer.
Will Cam have better luck finding love in Paradise? Here are all the details on this Bachelorette contestant. Who is Cam Ayala?
1. Rapper
Cam seemed like he might become an audience favorite early on with this quirky personality and his rapping. The Texan said in his Bachelorette bio that he can “freestyle rap about anything” and he showed off his skills with a rapped introduction when he first met Hannah. He also rap-serenaded her with a riff on his personal mantra “ABC or “Always Be Cam”.
He rapped his intro to Hannah B.
2. Pardon the interruption
After a strong start, Cam’s strategy on The Bachelorette seemed to mainly be barging in on other guys’ one on one moments with Hannah. One episode, when he didn’t get a date with the star of the show, he showed up during another contestant’s date and started offering them chicken nuggets. If that wasn’t enough, he interrupted a conversation Hannah was having on a later episode with contestant Mike. Mike was trying to tell Hannah a deeply personal story about going through a miscarriage with a prior girlfriend but Cam just wouldn’t butt out. Hannah was not impressed. His fellow contestants weren’t exactly thrilled with him either and they didn’t feel like he was trustworthy.
He interupted another man's date.
3. Health issues
Cam looks like a typical young and healthy man, as most contestants in Bachelor Nation are. However, he has a significant medical condition that he’s had to manage for most of his life. In an Instagram post in 2018, he explained his history with lymphedema, writing: “In 2002 I was officially diagnosed with #lymphedema a non-curable condition that is often misdiagnosed and completely understudied by medical professionals across the [the world] I was told by dozens of doctors and “Specialists” that I would never be able to play competitive sports, and that I would have to manage this condition for the rest of my life. Receiving that news as a 12-year-old boy was devastating because all I wanted to do was play [sports] with my friends. After visiting over 20 clinics, I was finally given some treatment options. Through manual lymphatic drainage massage, leg pumps, and custom compression garments, I was given a second chance to live a “normal” life again. This didn’t come with countless nights of excruciating pain, swelling, and mental agony. Through the support of my family, friends, and music, I stopped focusing on my misfortunes and started prioritizing the blessings that I often took for granted. Fast forward to 2014, I experienced my first “episode” of infection in my right knee. The past 4 years brought me to the top medical hospitals in Houston, Los Angeles, and Phoenix. After enduring 13 surgical procedures, the only consensus that the doctors came to was....amputation. The thought of losing my leg gave me crippling fear and anxiety. How would I ever be able to dance with my future wife, play sports with my future kids, and maintain a healthy lifestyle? As fate would have it, the experts at Boston Children’s Hospital performed a diagnostic procedure that saved my leg from being amputated in Dec. 2016.”
He didn’t put that front at center in his Bachelorette profile but he wasn’t exactly planning to keep it a secret, either.
He shared his health history online in 2018.
5. Pity rose
While Cam’s health history is real, Hannah was skeptical that he needed to tell her about it on The Bachelorette was based out of a real need to unburden himself. He was getting nervous about his prospects for being eliminated and decided that the way to stave off that outcome was to corner Hannah for a confession. He told her about his lymphedema in a last-ditch bid to keep her attention but the timing didn’t sit well with her. Elite Daily says she said to him: "I just feel like it's an interesting time for you to bring up this story...what you told me is very serious but [the timing] feels very manipulative...This just feels really scheme-y and slimy to me.” Other guys told Hannah that they thought Cam was angling for a “pity rose” to stay on the show longer. That episode ended with Cam heading home.
Hannah thought she was being played.
5. Powers of persuasion
While Cam failed at The Bachelorette, he may be successful in Paradise. He has a ton of experience as a sales professional. Hollywood Life reports that his LinkedIn profile includes sales jobs at Sales Area Manager at Tableau Software. His LinkedIn page also reveals that he previously worked at McGarrah Jessee, Saatchi & Saatchi, Workhorse Digital and The Reynolds Company. If he can sell product, maybe he can sell himself.
Cam will join Bachelor in Paradise this summer.
The new season of Bachelor in Paradise airs in August on ABC.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. Her work has been seen at Ravishly, Babble, Scary Mommy, The Mid, Redbook online, and The Broad Side. She is the creator of the blog Stay at Home Pundit and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.