Kamie Crawford Gets Sentimental About Fan Support Upon Leaving ‘Catfish’

‘I literally cried for days. It was really, really beautiful,’ the SI Swimsuit model and TV host told the brand last week.

Kamie Crawford / Jason Sean Weiss/BFA.com

Three-time SI Swimsuit model Kamie Crawford says traveling to a new exotic location, getting to reunite with the team and posing for the magazine is always a “highlight” of her year, but in 2024 she reached another milestone and made herself proud.

The TV host, who made her debut in the 2022 issue after her feature in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and posed in Dominica last year and Belize this year, is best known for her longtime role as the co-host of MTV’s Catfish. She made the difficult decision last month to leave the position and is forever grateful for all the memories and friends it gave her. The former Miss Teen USA first appeared on the reality dating series in 2018 as a temporary guest cohost and quickly became a fan favorite, being asked back more permanently.

Kamie Crawford / Jason Sean Weiss/BFA.com

“Thank you for wrapping your arms around me and accepting me with welcoming arms,” she wrote on Instagram on Oct. 3. “Change is hard but your acceptance and love made it so much easier to fill some already pretty big shoes.”

We caught up with the 32-year-old on the red carpet at SI Swimsuit’s 60th anniversary issue celebration at the Dante Beverly Hills last Thursday, as Crawford divulged more details about her announcement.

“I recently transitioned out of a job, and that was really exciting for me because now I get to do so many other cool new things. And I just feel like the future is limitless,” the Relationsh*t With Kamie Crawford podcast host explains. “Honestly—this is going to sound a little morbid—but I feel like you don’t usually get to hear the impact that you’ve left on people until after you’ve passed. Like, you really don’t actually get to hear it. You’re just kind of listening from above, I guess. So to have so many people giving me my flowers in real time was so overwhelming for me. I literally cried for days. It was really, really beautiful. And I’m just so honored that people even allowed me into their homes for six years.”

Crawford, who is the oldest of six girls and grew up in Maryland, is constantly using her platform to advocate for more diversity in the entertainment, modeling and fashion industries. She is proud to have served as a representation for women of color on the show, and even more thankful for the outpour of support from fans she has received over the years, even in announcing her decision to leave.

“I feel like most of my favorite catfish moments happened off-screen. Some of them you could see, but, like, in all the different places that we travel to, I cannot tell you the amount of incredible pastries that I tried in so many different cities,” she shares as one of her most cherished memories from the show. “You would be shocked. The food...like, everything that’s unique to these small-town areas. That was one of my highlights—other than the crazy stories. I tried a cinnamon bun, I think it was in Wisconsin, that changed my life.”