"I was on my own" — RHODubai's Chanel Ayan claims nobody reached out after news of her circumcision broke

Kenyan-born supermodel and reality TV personality Chanel Ayan recently opened up about her experience in the aftermath of her childhood circumcision. The circumcision was first revealed in 2022, and in the latest interview, Ayan recalled that she didn’t receive the reaction she expected or was hoping for after the news broke.

During her May 27 appearance in the latest episode of the Two T’s in a Pod podcast with hosts Tamra Judge and Teddi Mellencamp, the 45-year-old said that no one had reached out to her. She opened up to one of the podcast hosts, saying:

“When my story aired, Tamra, nobody reached out to me, and I mean nobody reached out to me. I was on my own in my house crying, closing the curtains, now knowing that the whole entire world knows this about me.”

For the unversed, Chanel Ayan shared the story about her and her older sister Ifra being circumcised as children without her family knowing about it during an episode of Real Housewives of Dubai in August 2022.

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Chanel Ayan says she "got the worst backlash" after her childhood circumcision was revealed

In her podcast appearance, the RHODubai star talked about the “backlash” that she experienced once news of the circumcision became public:

“Everything I’m doing is, like, the opposite of what I’m supposed to be doing. And then I got the worst backlash, man. ‘We don’t accept you. We don’t want you...Like, I was being crazy.”

Chanel Ayan also got candid with the podcast hosts about feeling like she was “crazy” for what she did and admitted to feeling like she was on her own afterward:

“I was, like, so stressed. I was having bad thoughts. I was so angry with myself.”

Despite initially feeling down from the backlash, which she called “the worst moment of [her] life, some good came out of Chanel Ayan speaking the truth about her genitalia mutilation experience. The RHODubai star noted:

“Literally in the worst moments of my life, the messages I got from women that have gone through the same thing as me was insane. It was insane. I think that’s one of the things that kept me going. And then listening to the stories, and then me sitting there and replying back.”

Chanel Ayan has previously talked about her husband, Christopher, being the support that helped her open up about her childhood circumcision and confronting her traumatic past.

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In related news, Ayan will be back for Season 2 of the Real Housewives of Dubai, which is set to premiere on Sunday, June 2, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo. She will join previous cast members Caroline Stanbury, Lesa Milan, Caroline Brooks, and Sara al Madani.