Bravo Below Deck Sailing Yacht's Dani Soares
Former “Below Deck Sailing Yacht” stewardess Dani Soares has been open with fans in the past about the ups and downs of being a single mom and raising her baby Lilly on her own in Australia.
In September 2022, Soares posted a new update about the struggles of trying to get her degree in nursing while raising her daughter on her own. As viewers know, the father of Soares’ baby is her “Below Deck” co-star Jean-Luc Cerza-Lanaux, whose involvement in the baby’s upbringing has been limited in the past, according to Soares.
The Brazil native shared a photo of her face and wrote in the caption, “Here goes another selfie with an inspirational caption…” She added that she was on her last term of university for the year and that it was “the hardest term yet!” Soares said:
Managed to use my holidays for my last hospital placement and managed to find someone amazing to take care of Lilly in the morning. Next placement is next month and I won’t have holidays to cover it so saving every penny to be able to cover the bills.
Soares explained that she wanted to share the update to help others. “If you are struggling I don’t want you to feel alone,” she wrote. “Most of the time instagram is all about the perfect life, the big houses, the mum’s that managed to put make up on everyday and I can’t relate to that. One challenge at a time, one day at a time. We got this.”
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Soares Revealed After ‘Below Deck Sailing Yacht’ That She Wanted a Career in Nursing
Soares shared in the past that she wanted to become a nurse and revealed in April 2021 that she’d enrolled in nursing school, Bravo’s The Daily Dish reported. “I love it,” she shared at the time. “It’s amazing. I literally love every subject of it. And I’m really excited about it.”
Soares revealed on an episode of “Pita Party” with her former co-stars Alli Dore and Daisy Kelliher that she wanted to keep studying after the birth of her daughter. “I should have a month holiday, after the baby is born, from school. It works really well with school holiday,” she said. “So, at least, you know, it’s a month without studying, without work, just me and baby. And then I can just go back to studying slowly and then after work. So it works well, actually.”
She told Bravo that her interest in the medical field was grew after she was the medical officer on a few boats. “I was a medical officer, which means that I had to have a first aid course,” she said. “I had to take care of medical equipment and stuff like that, so I always enjoyed this side of things.” She added, “I just want to do something that I can be like, I’m actually helping, I’m actually changing people’s lives, you know? And I was like, this is the time now, I’ll just go for it.”
Soares Said a ‘Real Parent’ Puts Their Child First
“Below Deck Sailing Yacht” season 2 was filled with drama, especially between Soares and Cerza-Lanaux, after Soares announced her pregnancy following the season. She shared that her boatmance with the deckhand led to the pregnancy while Cerza-Lanaux revealed publicly that he wasn’t sure and wanted to do a paternity test.
Soares gave birth to her daughter Lilly in late May 2021 but Cerza-Lanaux didn’t acknowledge that he was the father until January 2022. Soares revealed in a couple of Instagram Stories that she was struggling financially and hinted that Cerza-Lanaux wasn’t pulling his weight.
The show’s captain Glenn Shephard told Us Weekly in May 2022 that he heard that Cerza-Lanaux was now involved a bit more and was “setting up a college fund” for Lilly. “He talks to her regularly on zoom because they’re far apart,” Shephard shared. “He has to keep working obviously and I don’t think he can go to Australia and start a job.” Captain Glenn clarified that his information is second-hand so he wasn’t sure of the exact details of the situation.
On August 13, Soares wrote on Instagram that her daughter was “My number one priority always! Only a real parent understands that life is not about you anymore, it’s about the life you made and brought into this world and everything you do is for her.”
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