‘Below Deck’: 6 Shocking off-Camera Moments That Became Controversial – and Shaped the Season
The Below Deck franchise certainly doesn’t need off-camera controversies to create massive amounts of drama on their ever-expanding series.
But a few moments, that never made it to air, ended up not only influencing certain seasons but also shifted the storyline focus to what occurred when cameras weren’t rolling. Some of the moments were during “learning” years for production when producers realized that they needed more cameras to capture the drama. And other moments went down when the conflict became so heated, that producers had to step in.
Here are just 6 instances (amongst many) of Below Deck off-camera controversies:
Dani Soares and Jean-Luc Cerza-Lanaux became parents on ‘Below Deck Sailing Yacht’
Stew Dani Soares and deckhand Jean-Luc Cerza-Lanaux had a boatmance on Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 2 that resulted in the first Below Deck baby. Soares and Ceraz-Lanaux hooked up on the sailing yacht and Soares learned she was pregnant shortly after the season ended. She tried to keep her pregnancy to herself, but a fan snapped a photo of Soares and her growing baby bump on social media.
She had no choice but to go public about the pregnancy. She later confirmed that Cerza-Lanaux was the child’s father, but he wasn’t convinced until he took a DNA test. He didn’t take the DNA test until almost a year after his daughter, Lilly was born.
Soares later said she would never prevent Cerza-Lanaux from seeing the child. “I would never deny a father seeing their daughter,” she told ET. “That’s horrendous. … For Lilly’s sake, I know it would have been much better for her to know that her dad actually wants to meet her and wants to know her, than growing up knowing that he didn’t really do anything about it.”
Pete Hunziker got fired after ‘Below Deck Med’ Season 5 started airing
Deckhand Pete Hunziker suddenly “disappeared” from Below Deck Med Season 5 after he was fired for posting a racist and sexist meme on Instagram. For the first time ever, a crew member’s actions off camera got him edited off of the series. And later, fans even forgot he was on the show.
Hunziker shared the offensive meme but then doubled down on what he shared. Many fans were outraged and producers fired him, vowing to edit him from the season. They did such a good job, some fans wondered not only where he was, but who he was later in the season. Hunziker was also removed from confessionals and was not asked to participate in the reunion.
He later “sort of” apologized on a podcast. “I was just being silly,” he told Bravo Confessionals. “I think they just didn’t know who I was. It’s like I’m a very silly person and I can be very professional. I just kind of brought ‘Silly Pete.’ I don’t think I have too big of an ego.” Adding, “I just know how everything operates and gets done.”
‘Below Deck Med’ producer had to stop violence from escalating during season 6
Below Deck Med Season 6 viewers saw stew Lexi Wilson get in the crews’ faces during a night of drinking on the boat. But what they didn’t realize was that producers had to put down their cameras and intervene before her anger turned physical.
“Something happens this season, which we don’t show,” executive producer Nadine Rajabi said on the Melissa Rivers’ Group Text podcast. “Where I’ve had to go out and stop the situation. So there’s a lot of times like that where I will not tolerate that. And it’s not OK. It’s unacceptable and those are the times when I will step in and go this isn’t OK or you’ve got to let people go in those situations.”
Chief stew Katie Flood later confirmed that production stepped in. “Production actually stepped in,” she said during the reunion. “Yeah, because it was getting so out of hand. They actually stepped in and like lost our sh** like, “This is not what we are about.’ And if it goes any further I’m pretty sure Lexi would have been removed straight away. But I guess she reined it in at that point.”
The ‘Below Deck’ Season 9 ‘N-word’ controversy was handled off camera
Below Deck Season 9 went sideways when chief stew Heather Chase repeated the “N-word” on the show after Black deckhand Rayna Lindsey said it. The remark became a focal point on the show, but the narrative was confusing when Lindsey initially said she moved on but continued to talk about it.
She later blamed first mate Eddie Lucas for how he handled it. Lucas said in an interview, shared exclusively with Showbiz Cheat Sheet, that producers told him to brush the instance under the rug.
“I couldn’t believe [Chase] said it,” he said shaking his head during a virtual YourEncore event. “Heather shouldn’t have said that word.”
“You know, production was terrified by this whole situation coming out,” he recalled. “And I was told on numerous times don’t talk about it, stop bringing it up. This is going to kill us. And that’s not OK.”
“I mean, I was told on numerous occasions to not talk about it and not bring it up anymore,” he added. “I mean, when I had the conversation with Rayna about it, I wanted to go talk to Captain Lee. As soon as that conversation ended, there was an EP right out there saying, ‘OK, that was it. No more, we’re done talking about this.’”
Adam Glick and Malia White secretly hooked up off-camera before going on ‘Below Deck Med’ Season 2
Somewhat similar to what is going on this season of Below Deck Med, chef Adam Glick and deckhand Malia White hooked up before joining Below Deck Med Season 2. At the time, producers had no idea until Rajabi overheard a clue that put them on her radar.
“They came on the boat, and they pretended to just meet for the first time. So we had no idea,” she said at BravoCon 2019. “All of a sudden, I hear Adam say, ‘What about Santorini? What about all this stuff?’ And I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, a person who just met another human being like a week-and-a-half ago would not be talking about these elaborate trips unless he wants to wear her skin to his birthday party. He’s not that crazy.’ I’m like, ‘They know each other.’”
“I think with Below Deck, it’s funny, aside from the cast because we have fresh yachties and a lot of turnover because that’s how the yachting industry is, for us, it’s more the evolution of production because back when we first started, we didn’t have that many surveillance cameras because the boat’s not that big. How much can you actually cover? We had like eight to 10 surveillance cameras. And then we started missing things,” she said.
As a result, Below Deck producers now stock each vessel with eight more cameras that roll 24/7.
The entire ‘Below Deck’ Season 1 crew quit off camera, almost destroying the entire series
Executive producer Mark Cronin told Showbiz Cheat Sheet that the entire Below Deck Season 1 crew quit after the first charter because they thought producers were setting them up. The first charter guests ever were ceremoniously kicked off the boat when stew Kat Held found cocaine in a cabin.
And while cameras followed the guests’ departure, what they didn’t capture was every single crew member telling production they were also leaving the boat. “That was a disaster,” Cronin recalled. “That was a real disaster. And the reason it was a disaster was that the cast of the show, the boat crew, they didn’t trust us anyway.”
The crew thought the producers planted the drugs to create drama. “Yachting is very important to them and keeping their yachting certifications and their licenses,” he said. “And it wasn’t a joke. So they were looking at us like, ‘Well, what is this? Are you setting us up? Are these guests coming on here to make our lives difficult on purpose? And are you like to what extent are you messing with us?’”
“The whole cast quit,” he said. “They all basically said, ‘That’s it, we are not doing the show. If you guys are putting our licenses at risk by putting drugs on this boat, we quit.’” Cronin and the production crew had to go out of their way to regain the crew’s trust, which included Captain Lee Rosbach.
