Below Deck Star Reveals Shocking Ordeal Inside Horrific US Detention Center Before Deportation

Ever wonder what it’s like to get an unexpected VIP tour behind the scenes at LAX—but not the kind with champagne and sunnies? Natalya Scudder, the stewardess you might recognize from Below Deck: Mediterranean, recently shared her harrowing experience of being detained in a detention center in the U.S., and boy, it’s a cautionary tale for anyone tempted to visit the land of stars and stripes. Despite still loving America (yes, she actually said that!), Natalya’s story is a stark reminder: know your visa rules, or you might just find yourself stuck in a grim holding cell that’s definitely no luxury yacht cabin. Think dirty blankets on the floor and a shared loofah situation—not exactly the glamorous life we saw on screen. So, what’s the real price of “living the American dream” when immigration gets involved? Strap in, because this isn’t your typical reality TV drama—it’s a real-life ordeal with lessons everyone traveling stateside should heed. LEARN MORE

A star of Below Deck: Mediterranean has spoken about how she was detained by immigration officials and held at a detention centre in the US, and warned others of travelling to the country.

Natalya Scudder claimed that she was held in a ‘disgusting’ detention centre after landing at Los Angeles International Airport.

The star has been left harrowed by the experience, and said that although she still ‘loves America’, she warns anyone else travelling there to be very careful about their visa rules.

She told TMZ that she had been going through processing at the airport when she was taken aside to a different part, describing how ‘the guy was taking longer than usual’ in the passport control and immigration queue.

“I basically got pulled from like this main waiting area to the behind the scenes of the airport,” she said.

Natalya is from Australia, and starred in the seventh and eighth seasons of Below Deck: Mediterranean as a stewardess on board a yacht.

There, Natalya said that officials told her that she had previously ‘illegally worked’ in the US.

Natalya was detained at Los Angeles International Airport (Trae Patton/Bravo via Getty Images)

They said that back in 2024 Natalya had taken photos ‘on American soil’ which she had earned money from , and that this constituted having ‘illegally worked on the wrong visa’.

As a result, she was detained by officials and taken through to a holding area at the airport.

This had ‘dirty blankets on the floor’, and Natalya described ‘stains all over the walls’ in the grimy holding room where she said she would stay for ‘one to five days’.

When she later asked for a blanket because she was cold, officers told her ‘this isn’t the Beverly Hills Hotel’.

Natalya said that she was the only woman in this area, which also had a shower with a ‘shared loofah’, and nothing to dry herself with.

When she asked about towels, Natalya said that officers told her to dry herself using her dirty clothes, before putting them back on again.

“It’s really embarrassing just having everyone kind of stare at you and laugh when they come out of this room and gaze over,” she said.

Natalya, who also runs an OnlyFans account, also claimed that officials confiscated her phone.

She said that officers ‘went through absolutely everything’ on her device.

Natalya was eventually deported to Australia (Rich Polk/Bravo via Getty Images)

“Whatever you think’s deleted on your iPhone, it’s not deleted,” she said, saying they could see ‘every single thing you’ve ever screenshotted, taken a picture of, Googled’.

Eventually, Natalya said that she was woken at 3am when she was ‘dead-ass asleep’ and informed that she would have an ‘official interview’.

She was then deported back to Australia after the horrific ordeal.

“17-hour flight there, 30 to 40 hours between when I landed to the whole lock-up situation and then 17 hours back,” she said.

Natalya’s ordeal has come after US border officials arrested record numbers of people in June 2026 as Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations continue to grind on, the Guardian reported.

The raids have left communities across the country anxious and vigilant after ICE officers killed multiple people across the US, most recently 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo and 26-year-old Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero, who officers shot dead within a week of each other.