Living his best life — but at what cost? Tyler Cameron was thriving after appearing on The Bachelorette, but he didn’t have much money to his name.
The Florida native, 30, opened up about his finances during the Monday, March 13, episode of “Trading Secrets” with fellow Bachelor Nation alum Jason Tartick. The banker, 34, kicked off the podcast with his “favorite” story about Cameron from 2019, when he began dating supermodel Gigi Hadid.
“You and I are sitting at a sushi joint. Matt James came in. … And I was like, ‘Dude, so what are you gonna do?’ And we start talking about, like, what you’re thinking. And you were starting to date Gigi Hadid,” Tartick said of Cameron, whom he referred to as a “one show wonder” for the way his fame skyrocketed after vying for Hannah Brown‘s heart on the ABC reality series.
The You Deserve Better author chuckled as Tartick added, “[Tyler] goes to me, ‘Dude, I don’t know what the f–k I’m gonna do. I got $5,000 in my bank account, I don’t know what my next job is and I’m dating Gigi Hadid.'”
Cameron clarified that Tartick overestimated. “Not even $5,000. I had, like, $200, you know what I mean?” he quipped. “I’d be going on dates — this is in my early days of living in New York City. I’m living on Matt’s beanbag, have no money. But I’m, like, the happiest I’ve ever been because the world is wide open to me in New York City. I can do whatever I want.”
The Real Dirty Dancing alum recalled reaching out to his dad for help covering the bill on dates. “I’m calling [my] pops up in the bathroom. I’m like, ‘Pops, I don’t think my credit card’s gonna go through. I need you to send me some money right now,'” he said. “And he’s like, ‘You got it, son, go get it.'”
Cameron finished as the runner-up on season 15 of The Bachelorette. After briefly reconnecting with Brown, 28, following the end of her engagement to winner Jed Wyatt, the general contractor was spotted on several dates with Hadid, 27, in New York City in August 2019. At the time, a source exclusively told Us Weekly that the Next in Fashion cohost was “really into” Cameron.
The pair were caught packing on the PDA at an afterparty following the MTV Video Music Awards later that month. In September 2019, Cameron joined Hadid in the Netherlands to attend her late grandmother’s funeral.
Throughout their whirlwind romance, the twosome kept coy about their status, with Cameron claiming to Entertainment Tonight in September 2019 that he and Hadid were “just friends.” Us confirmed one month later that the duo called it quits.
While reflecting on his A-list relationship, Cameron told Tartick how he managed to treat Hadid to big nights out with little in his wallet. “You’re just crossing your fingers at this point,” the model teased. “At this point, I don’t even know what a credit card is. I got a straight debit card so when you hit zero, you hit zero, you know, so I’m just crossing my fingers, hoping it swipes. And it just kept swiping.”
Cameron detailed his post-show love life in his 2021 memoir, confessing to readers that he made “a major mistake” by pursuing Hadid so soon after reconnecting with Brown. “Not because I shouldn’t have been dating, because I was very clear with Hannah all along that after the way the show ended, I needed some time and space to figure things out,” he wrote in You Deserve Better. “I even called Hannah in the afternoon the same day I arrived in New York and told her again that I thought we both deserved to date other people. But I still put Hannah in a tough, tough position.”
He commended the Dancing With the Stars alum for her “class” amid the drama, adding, “If I could go back and do it all again, I would handle it differently. My communication should have been better.”
