Kate Chastain Is Still Proud of Her Below Deck Blanket Fold: “Favorite Thing I’ve Ever Done”
Kate Chastain Is Still Proud of Her Below Deck Blanket Fold: “Favorite Thing I’ve Ever Done”
Sometimes revenge is a dish best served folded. Just ask Kate Chastain.
To love Bravo is to have an encyclopedic knowledge of its most memorable and jaw-dropping episodes, as well as the quotes that gave life to hilarious memes. This Month in Bravo History explores those iconic Bravo moments with new commentary and intel from Bravolebs, producers, and more.
Kate Chastain and Captain Lee Rosbach have anchored themselves as reality TV icons and a dynamic duo on Below Deck. No moment quite captures their ability to give guests a memorable experience and hold each other accountable quite like Kate’s legendary — and creative — blanket fold in Season 2.
How to Watch
Watch Below Deck on Bravo Mondays at 8/7c and next day on Peacock.
In Season 2, Episode 4, which originally aired September 2, 2014, primary charter guest Dean told Kate she was scaring his group and “coming off kinda bitchy.” In her confessional, Kate explained she left the tense exchange feeling “rage-filled.” In response, she left him with what she described as “a perfect blanket fold.”
“Every day there’s a little creature or an anchor something on my bed and today someone did the towel in the form of a penis,” the charter guest later told Captain Lee.
Reflecting on her work of art and rebellion: “I mean it was very good; it was a perfect shape,” she said. Kate initially defended her folding technique as an innocent “rocketship,” when reprimanded by Captain Lee and met with astonished reactions from her crew.
If I’m being honest that blanket fold is possibly my proudest moment of my life”
“I feel like I don’t know who that girl was,” Kate told Bravo Insider. “I like her, but I cannot believe I did that, like what a maniac I was. I think I had only been on reality TV for a week at that point and here I am just making bold moves.”
Season 2 marked Kate’s Below Deck debut, serving as Chief Stew, so making the phallic image on a charter guest’s bed so early on in the season was definitely a bold choice. “I think I would have done that whether there were cameras or not,” Kate told Bravo Insider. Still, it wasn’t something she expected from herself.
“What’s interesting is it surprised me, it surprised the charter guests, and it really surprised production — to the point that the executive producer Mark Cronin was like, ‘Kate, like we don’t really know what to do here.'” Kate recalled. “They were just confused. And I said, ‘Well, you know, I’ve never done it before, but I’ve also never had a charter guest say to my face that I was being bitchy.’”
Kate says she wasn’t “that sorry” for folding the charter guest’s blanket in the shape of a penis
“I was a little bit relieved. It meant that I wasn’t fired,” Kate admitted after Captain Lee told her she had to apologize to the charter guest. “I wasn’t that sorry, so that only thing worse than making an apology — a forced apology — is a forced apology that you don’t even mean.”
It surprised me, it surprised the charter guests, and it really surprised production”
In fact, playing nice felt akin to her time on Peacock’s The Traitors, Kate shared.
“I remember specifically we were doing a beach picnic party right before I apologized and I felt paranoid,” Kate explained. “I felt like everybody was looking at me, everybody was like, “Oh God, what’s she doing?’ I was so nervous, and I think Kat Held, who was the stewardess at the time, kept making penis jokes to spook me.”
When the apology was well received by her “charter guest soulmate,” Kate felt relieved, though she admitted it wasn’t fun leading up to the conversation.
Kate recalled feeling shocked her crewmates didn’t have her back in the matter.
“I remember Kat and Ben, we were in the kitchen or the galley, and they were mad at me,” Kate said. “I thought the entire crew would be supportive, knowing we stand by our crew member … when people were mad at me because it would affect their tip, I was thinking, ‘Who’s thinking about money when I’m talking about respect, people?’ But I guess respect doesn’t pay their bills, so yeah, they were more focused on the money.”
Kate stands by her blanket fold today
“Frankly, it’s also my favorite thing I’ve ever done,” Kate said. “I’ve done a lot of stuff in my life both before reality TV, after, during and if I’m being honest that blanket fold is possibly my proudest moment of my life,” Kate said. “It was so creative, and I am proud of the boldness and the courage I had in that moment, mixed with creativity.”
