Rachel From ‘Below Deck’ Reveals She Probably Won’t Be BFFs With Eddie Lucas – and Why She Wanted to Move Forward
Chef Rachel Hargrove from Below Deck may have accepted Eddie Lucas’s apology for his shade last season, but they probably won’t be pen pals going forward.
Lucas complained when Hargrove cut loose during crew nights out on Below Deck Season 8. He made comments about how embarrassed he was in confessionals and she only learned he felt that way when the show aired. While she entered the new season with some animosity toward Lucas, they had a heartfelt moment early in the season where they seemingly squashed their beef.
Hargrove said she wanted to move on from the previous season, but they didn’t forge this budding new friendship either.
Chef Rachel just wanted to move on from ‘Below Deck’ Season 8
During a podcast appearance, the hosts said they loved how Hargrove and Lucas came together as friends. After a long pause, she addressed their observation. She joked about the awkward silence. “Wondering exactly how politically correct am I going to respond to this?” she said on the Escape to Reality podcast.
“I think that certain people are cut out for leadership roles and have integrity – I mean, have the ability to – you know, address situations properly and say, ‘Hey man, I f***** up and I’m sorry,'” she continued. “And what can I do to earn your trust back and make sure that you don’t think I’m a slimy, backstabbing POS?’ And I’ll be like, ‘Sweet! Let’s move forward there kitten!'”
She didn’t want to let Captain Lee (or the crew) down this season
Hargrove accepted Lucas’s apology mainly because she wanted to reduce any additional stress on Captain Lee Rosbach.
“Hey, it’s a work environment,” she remarked. “I got a lot of s*** riding on this and I can’t lose the respect of Heather [Chase]. I can’t lose the respect of Fraser [Olender] and I can’t lose the respect of Captain Lee first and foremost. Because the fact that the one thing that he said to me, and he said it a couple of times, was that whatever the hell’s happening on his boat, the last thing I ever have to worry about is your department.”
“And if I can take myself out of the equation [to reduce] stress for my Boat Pop Pop, I would do it,” she added. “I love Captain Lee and I absolutely respect him as my captain. I respect him as a person so if I can take that stress away by eliminating something that really is at the grand scheme of things that is minuscule as f***, then I will.”
Chef Rachel says, ‘I can work with anyone’
Before the season started airing Hargrove said she was neutral toward Lucas. “I think that Eddie played his role and he was there and that was normal for Eddie to be there on this TV show as a character,” she told E! News when asked how he performed as a first officer this season.
She added, “I’m professional, I can always work with anyone. I don’t give a f***. I work on a yacht and I make s*** tons of money hand over fist. So I can deal with Eddie.”
Hargrove said she truly got along well with chief stew Heather Chase. “I love her, she’s funny as s***, man. She’s got a great personality and she’s really good at her job. She’s got this blasé dry humor and this resting bitch face. Like, she’s actually funny as f*** and she’s really good at her job. And she loves it and she’s passionate.”
Adding, “I actually loved every single cast member. I loved them. They were hilarious! Every crew member was funny and they had their own personalities and they were just them, quintessentially, unadulterated amazing.”
