‘Below Deck Med’: Pete Hunziker ‘Tipped off’ Charter Guests, but Ashton Pienaar Spent Time With ‘Below Deck’ Guests
Pete Hunziker from Below Deck Mediterranean may have “tipped off” the group of guests to meet them at the club, but he’s not the first crew member to want to party with the guests.
In fact, Ashton Pienaar and Tanner Sterback from Below Deck Season 7 spent a few days with some of the charter guests from Charleston. A source told Showbiz Cheat Sheet that the Below Deck Med “tip-off” definitely came from Hunziker and that deckhand Alex Radcliffe knew Hunziker messaged the guests asking them to meet the crew at the club.
Pienaar was filmed doing the exact same thing last season on Below Deck. Cameras captured a text exchange with charter guest Molly O’Connell. She messaged, “Hey Ashton, where you headed tonight? We want to join! :-)”
Pienaar told deckhand Brian de Saint Pern, “If we want to invite those girls tonight, we can.” Pienaar is filmed openly pondering whether or not to meet up with the guests. But viewers never saw the exchange from Hunziker because he was cut from the series.
Pete Hunziker was removed from the show so viewers never knew he made the connection
Below Deck viewers knew the Pienaar was in touch with the charter guests. But Below Deck Med viewers didn’t know how the group of all women guests ironically met the crew at the club. The reason is that Hunziker was cut from the show.
Hunziker shared a violent, racist, and misogynist meme on Instagram only weeks after the season started. Bravo and 51 Minds fired him and eliminated him from as much footage as possible. Since viewers didn’t see Hunziker’s interaction with the guests, the tip-off seemed to possibly come from Rob Westergaard, who flirted with the primary guest.
Jessica More was angry because Westergaard, who she was dating at the time, spent most of the evening at the club talking to the primary. A viewer wondered why the guests were at the club. All More shared on Twitter was that “They were tipped off …” she replied.
Despite the “tip-off,” the crew only spent time with the guests at the club. However, the same can’t be said for Pienaar and Sterback.
‘Below Deck’ deck members got romantic with the guests at the club (and beyond)
Unlike the Below Deck Med guests, some of the guests on Below Deck were single. Pienaar got cozy with O’Connell and Sterback made plans with chef Justine Vastano.
What viewers didn’t see was when the foursome spent a few days together off-camera. “They stayed for a few days [in Thailand],” Pienaar remarked in the Below Deck After Show. We spent a few days with them. What an awesome time we had with those two girls. It was really, really fun.”
Sterback said Vastano is a “very good chef” and that she cooked for him. “I visited her in Charleston and stuff like that, so we had some fun,” he dished. “It’s so simple, but she cooked me the best avocado toast and breakfast in bed. F**king hell, it was great.” He gestured that he and Vastano hooked up too.
