‘Below Deck Med’: Are Alex Radcliffe and Bugsy Drake Out of the Friend Zone?

Alex Radcliffe from Below Deck Mediterranean seemed to be totally smitten with Christine “Bugsy” Drake almost the minute she stepped foot on the yacht. And while they flirted endlessly, it never went any further … until now.

Radcliffe confesses his feelings to Drake during a night on the town. “I’m fully into you,” he says to her at a club. Suddenly the two are in a liplock and are kissing at the club. “Bye-bye friend zone,” Radcliffe says in a confessional.

The feeling seems to be mutual as Drake and Radcliffe got cozy the first night after she joined the boat. The night ended innocently but Drake worried she and Radcliffe went too far during the boozy evening. Her concerns were quelled when Radcliffe confirmed nothing happened between them. While she was relieved their relationship remained professional, she and Radcliffe continued to flirt.

Bugsy Drake teased a boatmance this season

Drake resisted the boatmance, sharing a tough memory she had of being rejected by a boy when she was 14 years old. Drake tried to keep her relationships on a friendship level to avoid getting hurt but she and Radcliffe still flirted.

She also noted their age difference too. At the time, Radcliffe was 23 years old and Drake was 29. But it was clear they consistently shared snappy, fun banter and he complimented her work ethic, especially once she took over as chief stew.

“There’s a lot to see this season,” she told Decider, shortly after she joined the boat. “I think it’s probably going to be one of the craziest seasons in the whole franchise history. There’s just so many exciting things — you never know what’s around the corner. Things that even blew my mind. I’d say, for me, there’s a lot of growth in my character this season.”

This boatmance seems to end in friendship

“I think also, an interesting thing for me is I’m a lot more open to romance on a boat,” she added. “Open to that, if anything’s going to come from that. Trying to balance work and romance, which is something I’ve always been against. But I’m being kind of open to it this season.”

Drake said coming in as second stew made her more open to a boatmance this season. “I’ve come on as a second stew, a lot less responsibility,” she said. “I thought, why not have a little bit of fun with it?”

While many boatmances end badly, Drake recently shared she and Radcliffe are on good terms. “I mean, I’ve been anti-boatmance in the past,” she told InTouch. “I’m pretty excited about it. I’ve met Alex who I can banter with… he’s super comfortable to be around. So yeah, I’m excited to kind of see where that leads.”

Adding, “It’s just a bit of fun,” she said. “We do keep in touch. We’ve got a pretty solid friendship,”