Key Takeaways
- CT Tamburello said his mother rejected his early nightclub-appearance checks as “blood money” because she suspected he was dealing drugs.
- The Challenge veteran now calls the advice to send checks home and rely on cash “arguably the worst financial advice I ever got,” noting that it left him without a credit history.
- Tamburello now connects directly with fans through paid BuzzStar video calls while competing on The Challenge: Cutthroat and publicly dating Phaedra Parks.
Some parents frame their kid's first big paycheck. CT Tamburello's mom wanted it out of the house.
The 46-year-old Challenge legend sat down with fellow Massachusetts native Andy Bachman on the Creators Inc. Podcast, where the conversation turned to the first money lesson fame taught him. Early on, the advice was to send the checks home and deal in cash, which he now calls "arguably the worst financial advice I ever got."
"It wasn't like I had bad credit. I just didn't have any," Tamburello explained. "And then mom thought I was a drug dealer."
Back then, the cash came from nightclub appearances, the paid walk-throughs that turned early reality stars into weekend headliners. Tamburello was fresh off The Real World: Paris and working Boston rooms like McFadden's.
"You know how hard it was to tell my mom that people were paying me to show up at nightclubs?" the MTV veteran recalled. Her answer, as he tells it: "I had to do this with your older brothers. Don't bring that blood money here."
These days, fans don't need a bouncer to get face time with him. Tamburello takes calls on BuzzStar, the live video platform Bachman founded, where fans pay by the minute to talk one-on-one with the stars they follow.
"One thing I do love about BuzzStar is that it gives me a safe place to actually engage with everybody," he said. "Instead of doing like a pre-recorded video or something, I get to actually engage with people and talk with them."
And he’s hardly the only familiar face taking calls. The platform’s roster stretches across music, reality TV, sports and streaming, with names including Ray J, Aubrey O'Day, NLE Choppa, DDG, Johnny Bananas and Sophie Rain.
Tamburello has given fans plenty to ask about lately, too. He’s back on The Challenge: Cutthroat, which kicked off Aug. 5 and is currently airing weekly on Paramount+. His latest run has already stirred up some drama, with questions swirling over whether he intentionally threw a brutal eating challenge that ultimately helped longtime ally Cara Maria Sorbello.
Away from the competition, his romance with Phaedra Parks has been generating its own headlines.
Earlier this month, the Real Housewives of Atlanta star confirmed that their relationship was no longer platonic after viewers first picked up on their chemistry when they competed together on The Traitors.
The pair made their red-carpet debut at the Creative Arts Emmys the following day, and Tamburello has since said they’re "in a good place," telling Us Weekly that Parks "just brings peace."
Meanwhile, his divorce from estranged wife Catalina White is moving forward. TMZ reported Sept. 29 that the former couple is scheduled for private mediation next month after a lengthy stretch with little movement in the case.
As for Bachman, his September has been just as eventful. Days before sitting down with Tamburello, his CI Swimwear show at Sony Hall took an unexpected turn when Lil Tay crashed the runway mid-show and was escorted off by security. Bachman later told TMZ he didn’t condone someone "spoiling months of preparation," though he admitted she "mogged the entire room."
Two days later, he was back at Sony Hall for a very different reason, accepting Runway 7’s inaugural Impact & Influence Award for his work helping creators turn online audiences into opportunities beyond social media.
