Right now there's one reality TV story that has everyone talking. It has everything to do with a very serious incident in the latest season of Below Deck Down Under.
The boat's bosun [lead deckhand] Luke Jones was paying a lot of unwanted attention to stewardess Margot Sisson, who he had previously kissed without her permission.
After a night out, the crew had gone to bed on the boat, Margot in bed and inebriated.
Luke - wearing nothing but a towel - then entered Margot's bedroom and climbed into her bed. Members of production broke the fourth wall and intervened, telling him to get out of her room.
"Can you f**k off for a second?" he said, now naked, as he slammed the door and held it closed as production tried to push against it.
Captain Jason was notified and Luke was immediately fired, as was another female crew member, Laura, for sexually harassing one of the deckhands.
Watch: The moment when the two crew members were fired by Captain Jason. Post continues below.
The cast and production crew have since been commended for their response.
Throughout the franchise, there's been a myriad of additional controversies and dramatic situations that have unfolded. From an almost-death experience to racial slurs and male crew misogyny, we unpack it all below.
When one deckhand went overboard and almost lost his life.
During season six there was a freak accident that almost killed one of the crew.
The boat's bosun for the season, Ashton Pienaar, went overboard. He had stepped on the line to tow the tender boat, and the line quickly wrapped around his ankle and dragged him off the yacht into the water.
Fortunately, the entire Below Deck team sprang into action, one of the other deckhands announcing "man overboard" on the radio.
It was the quick-thinking actions of one of the show's cameramen, Brent, that saved Ashton's life.
Brent immediately put his camera down and helped get the line loose, so that Ashton was free and could swim to the tender for safety. Without this, the line would have quickly tightened and severed Ashton's foot - meaning he would have bled out to the point of death before anyone could reach him in the water.
Reflecting on the terrifying moment - which was all captured on the footage - Captain Lee said it was one of the scariest accidents he's ever witnessed during his decades-long career.
"We were in 30 seconds of him dying. I would have had to call his parents and tell them their son is dead and I'm responsible. I don't know how I would deal with that," Captain Lee said through tears during the episode.
Ashton said during the season's reunion episode that he has been dealing with PTSD-related symptoms since the ordeal.
"I will say I felt like I completely dealt with it, but when I saw the clip being played again as a teaser I got chills. It kind of took me back to that situation. The situation itself was tough. It was very real," he said.
When a female stewardess was threatened in a van by one of the male crew members.
In season seven Ashton (the same guy who went overboard) and some of his fellow male crew were accused of being threatening and misogynistic towards the women on the team.
There were two particular incidents that were heavily criticised by viewers.
One was at the end of the charter season when some of the crew were in a van heading back to the port following dinner, and Ashton and chief stewardess Kate Chastain got into a disagreement. He had also forcibly kissed Kate moments before, sticking his tongue down her throat.
Leaning over from the front passenger seat of the van into the backseat where Kate was, he towered over her and began yelling.
She then called him a "psycho". In a rage, Ashton punched the side of the van's door.
Reflecting on it, Kate said on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen: "I've unfortunately learned the hard way that when someone gets violent, for you to just remove yourself from the situation so it doesn't get worse. Kevin [one of the other passengers/crew in the van] asked the driver to pull over the van and was pulling Ashton away. It was intense."
One of the other male crew in the van said he thought, "Ashton was going to punch her [Kate] in the face."
Captain Lee heard of the incident post-charter season, but said if he had been made aware of the situation, he would have fired Ashton on the spot. The Captain said Ashton remains on his blacklist of crew members he will never hire again.
When the chef kicked sand in the chief stewardess' face.
Season seven was a bit of a cesspit of drama. Kate was once again in the firing line of some of the men on the boat who called themselves 'The Brü Crew'. For reference, Brü is South African and Kiwi slang for mates, particularly 'boys will be boys' type lads.
Kate and the season's chef, Kevin Dobson, were having an argument and both claiming each other was terrible at their respective jobs.
They were at a beach crew party in between charters, and according to one of the deckhands, Kevin had become "really f**king drunk".
Following their disagreement, Kate went and sat in a chair on the beach and Kevin went up to her and kicked sand into her face on purpose.
He was then immediately told off by one of the deckhands, who said: "Don't you dare do that Brü. Don't ever disrespect women again. What's wrong with you?"
At the reunion, Kevin was asked to clarify if he did kick sand in Kate's face. He replied: "Did we get that on camera? [Yes]. Okay well yeah then I did."
Kevin has since not returned to the Below Deck franchise.
Other toxic behaviour shown by the Brü Crew included an incident while the crew was at a food market.
The only female deckhand had expressed her excitement about trying fried scorpions, so in response, Kevin the chef bought all the scorpions for sale at the market so she couldn't have any. When she confronted him and said that was a mean-spirited thing to do, he went back to the Brü Crew and complained about her. Ashton then asked Kevin: "Did you slap her with your d***?"
When one of the white stewardesses used a racial slur when speaking to the only Black stewardess in the team.
After a night out with the crew in season nine, chief stewardess Heather Chase was singing various rap lyrics in the crew area of the boat. She then said the n-word.
Also present was one of the few Black members of the team, Rayna Lindsey, who was a deckhand. She immediately pulled Heather up on it and said: "You cannot say [n-word] you're white as f**k. You've got to be careful, it's 2021, it's not 2002 anymore."
Heather then claimed she hadn't said it - although it was caught by the cameraman.
Rayna then reminded Heather that she had actually said it twice while the pair were walking into the restaurant earlier that night. That encounter was also caught on camera and replayed by producers.
At the reunion, Heather apologised for using the slur on multiple occasions.
Reflecting on the moments the n-word was used, Rayna said it was "cringy and uncomfortable" in real-life and also when she watched it back as a viewer of Below Deck.
"It's something that should just be known," Rayna said, adding that she felt she had to be subdued in her response to calling out Heather.
"As an African American woman, there's this stereotype of us always being aggressive or too loud. That was running through my head almost every second of the show. I don't want to give anyone the fuel to play into that trope. But I was genuinely hurt, Rayna said.
Captain Lee also confirmed during the reunion that producers did a "thorough investigation" into Heather's comments. For Rayna, she felt the apology wasn't good enough.
"I felt it was insincere. If she genuinely wanted to apologise, she could have done that instead of playing victim and apologised when I first told her about it [rather than later in the season]."
Feature Image: Below Deck.
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