Your pot is a little too small for a Camellia to grow in. Long-term, you need to grow in a larger pot. If you want branching, you will need to prune the main stem down to at least half its current height. Do that after it's finished flowering. Your original shrub may have been trained that way to grow as a wall shrub which is getting more popular nowadays.
If you can bring yourself, you can cut that right down to the first flower or even lower, it will shoot out several branches and look lovely next year. Ive done this with much taller ones than yours. I cut one right back level with ground hoping it would give up, it came back with a vengeance. I do think they are better in the ground though, if you have slightly acid soil.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
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Ive done this with much taller ones than yours.
I cut one right back level with ground hoping it would give up, it came back with a vengeance.
I do think they are better in the ground though, if you have slightly acid soil.