‘Below Deck’: Elizabeth Frankini Becomes the First Stew Fired on the Show
In a (not so) shocking turn of events, Francesca Rubi and Captain Lee Rosbach fired stew Elizabeth Frankini during the latest episode of Below Deck.
Frankini was on the chopping block for weeks but Rosbach finally lowered the boom after too much play and not enough work.
While other stews have come close to being fired, Frankini is actually the first stew that Rosbach has fired on the show. She is the second stew fired franchise-wide. Chief stew Hannah Ferrier from Below Deck Mediterranean was fired last season when bosun Malia White turned her in for having unregistered valium and a vape pen.
This season, Rubi has continuously pushed for Frankini’s dismissal. Plus Rosbach indicated in several of his blogs that he wasn’t confident Frankini would finish the season.
Captain Lee hinted he could fire Elizabeth Frankini last week
Rosbach indicated in a few blogs that he wasn’t happy with Frankini’s performance. Beyond not being up to par on service, she and James Hough slept in a guest cabin without first getting permission. Rosbach wrote in his last blog that Frankini’s future on the boat didn’t look good.
“Not sure what the future holds, but it doesn’t look well,” he hinted. “It’s always the same for you, you mess up, you get caught, you apologize, say you’re sorry, wash and repeat. No change at all. We shall see.”
Rosbach also teased about possibly firing a couple this season. “Boatmances are those things that you hope don’t happen and you are powerless to prevent them,” he said on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. “You know they’re gonna happen so you just hope they work out for the best. And when they go south, God they go south so quickly.”
“Sometimes you gotta get rid of two people,” he added.
Kate Chastain almost fired another stew on ‘Below Deck’
While Frankini has the dubious honor of being the first stew to be fired on Below Deck, former chief stew Kate Chastain wanted to fire a few other stews. While she had moments where she wanted to fire Racquel “Rocky” Dakota, Laura Betancourt from season 6 came closest to getting a plane ticket home.
“Laura [Betancourt], after she yelled at me to check myself, that was probably the closest I ever [got],” Chastain told Bravo’s The Daily Dish. “I’m glad that Captain Lee wouldn’t let me because, actually, we’re like friends now. It was just in that moment, I was so over it.”
“I think the fact that Laura told me to check myself, Captain Lee had a stern talking to with her, and then the next day I made her a checklist and told her to checklist herself, the fact that she laughed at that joke at her expense, my respect for her immediately skyrocketed,” she continued. “We were kind of looking at each other like, OK, you yelled at me, I got you back, we’re good now. Let’s move forward.”
“So I kind of feel like the yoga saying, ‘the light in me honors the light within you,’” Chastain remarked. “This is like the bitch version, like, ‘the bitch in me honors and recognizes the bitch within you.’”
