Ashley Explains Why She Skipped ‘Below Deck Sailing Yacht’ Reunion – Didn’t Want to Face Gary King Sexual Assault Accusations

Ashley Marti from Below Deck Sailing Yacht said she skipped the reunion because she didn’t want discuss the chatter surrounding her controversial hookup with Gary King.

At one point during the season, Marti hooked up with an excessively drunk King in a guest cabin. Apparently, King was so drunk he passed out and claims to not remember ultimately having sex with Marti. Some fans believed that Marti sexually assaulted King because the hookup went down without his consent. She was attacked on social media and remained silent. But King later addressed the accusations on a podcast and on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.

Ashley skipped the ‘Below Deck Sailing Yacht’ reunion because it was filmed at the height of the controversy

Marti hosted an Instagram live on the night before the Below Deck Sailing Yacht reunion aired and explained her absence.

“I chose to not do the reunion because, at the time the reunion was filmed, all of the stuff with the bedroom scene was coming out,” she said. “And people were being very nasty. And I just felt like I didn’t want to have to deal with it during the reunion.”

“I was really tired of having to talk about everything because we’ve had to do interviews in L.A. multiple times and it really beats you down,” she continued. “Especially for the people that have to be there for longer amounts of time that have more things they have to talk about. And I was really just tired and I didn’t want or have the energy to actually participate. And I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to pick the questions that were asked to me. It was going to be obviously up to Bravo and up to Andy [Cohen] to decide. And that already wouldn’t have allowed me to really tell my side of the story.”

Gary King insisted Ashley did not assault him on the show

King said on the  Beneath the Surface podcast that he did not feel as though he was sexually assaulted. “Anything I can say, I guess, is that it wasn’t the first time that we hooked up,” King said.

“I would have wished I wasn’t that drunk, but I think people are making a bigger deal out of it than it was,” he added. “So thanks to everyone for caring. I do appreciate that. But it was blown a bit out of proportion.”

Even though he wasn’t in touch with Marti, King reached out to her when she started getting so much hate. “I really didn’t watch the episode prior to messaging her,” he said. “I was just getting messages and comments about it all. So I figured that something would have happened. I messaged Ashley saying, ‘I haven’t watched the episode, but due to the messages that I’m getting, I can only imagine the messages that you’re receiving. So I’m really sorry about that. Don’t take anything personal and don’t listen to these people.’”

Ashley said she wasn’t trying to be sneaky or shady on ‘Below Deck’

Marti also wanted to clear up why she talked to Daisy Kelliher about Gabriela Barragan confiding in her about quitting. “One of the main things when all the stuff with Gabriela leaving was going down, they made it look like I texted Daisy to talk about Gabriela,” she said.

“When, in reality, I don’t know if production sent her in my room during my break or what, but I didn’t initiate that conversation. Daisy initiated it,” she said. “I wasn’t trying to be, like, a sneak or shady. But I didn’t want to get screwed over. Gabriela left last minute, and we had to deal with being a stew down, which we ended up having to do anyway. So I felt that Daisy needed to know because she had no idea that Gabriela was really thinking about quitting. So, yeah, that’s why I might have looked sneaky, but I wasn’t trying to be.”

She added that the crew is so beaten down they’ll say just about anything in their confessionals to get them over with. “I think having to talk about the same thing so many times and storylines change, so it’s hard,” Marti said. “And at that point, we’re all just so beaten down that you kind of say whatever they want you to say just to get you out of there faster. And that’s exactly what happened.”