The Untold Truth Of Malia White From Below Deck Med
"Below Deck" and its spinoff "Below Deck Mediterranean" are seriously addictive television! The shows have it all: luxurious yachts, dreamy locations, a hot crew, and lots of juicy drama. Malia White joined the crew of the Sirocco for Season 2 of "Below Deck Med." In her first season, she was a deckhand. In her time away from the show, she educated herself on the available jobs in the incredibly competitive industry of crewing private yachts. Malia hadn't worked on yachts prior to boarding the Sirocco for Season 2 of "Below Deck Med." In the time since then, she studied and went out and got certifications to become a bosun — the ship's officer in charge of equipment and the crew. She is the first female bosun in the "Below Deck" franchise's universe and she has Captain Sandy to thank for inspiring her to follow her dreams.
In Season 5, Malia worked on the enormous yacht Wellington. "I've always been drawn to work on the water, and I think after that first season, I was like, 'Okay, this is a career change and I'm just going to go for it,'" Malia told Vulture. "I haven't looked back since."
Malia White and Captain Sandy are returning for Season 6 of "Below Deck Med" with a whole new crew after some drama in Season 5, per People. Let's take a look at everything there is to know about Malia White from "Below Deck Med."
Malia grew up loving the sea
Malia White was born in 1990 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. She was the baby of the family, with five older brothers, per Gossip Gist. Her dad worked in a boatyard, which influenced Malia growing up and led to her love of the sea and superyachts. Malia decided to forego college to go after a career in yachting after graduating from high school.
Her coastal upbringing clearly influenced the trajectory of her life. Malia leads an active lifestyle and has backpacked around the world and is a certified divemaster who has taught scuba classes and other water sports in Hawaii and the Bahamas. She also returned to Florida to study engineering, as she shared on Instagram in January 2020. "This past year I decided to give engineering a try- it has definitely had its challenges but overall such a rewarding decision!" she wrote. "But now it's time to say goodbye to Florida and head to the Med for another new experience...."
Sounds like the new experiences aren't in short supply! When the crew hit the water to film the newest season, they were aboard the 180-foot mega-yacht Lady Michelle in Šibenik, the oldest Croatian town on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, per Deadline.
Malia White's goal is to captain superyachts
Malia White started off as a deckhand and has been learning and studying to advance her career in the world of crewing private yachts. In addition to becoming the first female bosun in "Below Deck" history, she's also obtained her 200-ton Captain's license, per Bravo. Her ultimate goal, however, is to be like Captain Sandy and be a female captain of a superyacht in the heavily male-dominated industry.
"Currently, my next goal is to become a chief officer," she told Vulture. "That would be pretty much the right-hand woman to the captain. It's quite a bit of schooling, so I'm ticking them off one by one. And that means I can be on bigger boats, as a chief officer."
As the bosun for "Below Deck Med's" sixth season, she'll have the responsibility of leading the new crew and charter passengers through their time onboard the Lady Michelle. It sounds like Malia will have her hands full, as Deadline reports that "... a serious crisis occurs before the opening charter, leaving the staff to worry if the season will be over before it even begins." Yikes!
Malia made her first Atlantic crossing in the spring of 2021
In spring 2021, Malia White accomplished a first in her yachting career: a crossing of the Atlantic! Malia posted a photo of herself smiling in the bridge at the helm of a boat on Instagram on April 15 with the location tagged as the Atlantic Ocean. She captioned the photo, "Happy to be doing my first Atlantic Crossing." In the comments of the photo, Captain Sandy Yawn wrote, "Proud of you!"
Captain Sandy has always been supportive of Malia's lofty goals in the world of charter yachts. Malia said that Captain Sandy told her, "Keep going — you can be a captain, you can do this," per Vulture. "And throughout the years, she'd text me or send me messages like, 'What are you doing? You could be doing this.'"
Malia isn't shy about explaining what the encouragement means to her, either. "She's definitely always fought for me to continue to push myself and know that women do have a place in this industry, which I think is super cool and important," Malia said. "You sit in classrooms where it's 90 percent men, and you're like, 'Should I be here? Can I do this?' And she's paved the road for that."
She didn't appreciate Captain Sandy discussing her sexual orientation
Although Malia White and Captain Sandy Yawn have a good relationship, that doesn't mean they haven't clashed from time to time. In September 2020, Malia and her latest boyfriend, chef Tom Checketts, broke up. Captain Sandy then took it upon herself to say in a Cameo video that she and the crew suspected Malia was gay. Malia then took to social media to speak for herself.
"My personal life seems to be quite the topic at the moment ... so I thought that I would send out a message in my own words," she said in a since-deleted Instagram video (via ET). "So, first off, yes, Tom and I have split. The details surrounding all of it, I am trying to keep a little private, just out of respect to him and I. But yes, I am single."
She went on to say she was as shocked as everyone else at Captain Sandy's claims. "First off, if I was gay, I would just like to say it should be my decision when and if to out it to the entire internet," Malia clarified. "But no, I'm not, but if I was, I would be openly proud to be gay. I'm a huge supporter of the community and, yeah, I'll just leave it at that." By the following May, according to Reality Blurb, the two had put the incident behind them. We love a happy ending!
Malia White won't put up with sexism and misogyny
The universe of "Below Deck" and "Below Deck Med" has seen its fair share of bro-tastic attitudes and misogyny over the seasons. As the first female bosun in the franchise, Malia White made it clear she wasn't going to allow that to happen. "Unfortunately, [misogyny] is still around in the industry — well, I think everywhere," she told Refinery29. "[E]veryone comes from such different backgrounds, culturally, so there's such a huge learning curve on boats anyways," she explains. "And then you mix up genders and different gender roles and leadership roles and it gets even more interesting."
Even though Malia is essentially the boss of the crew, it's something she still has to deal with. "Just as a female on deck, you're always worried about how seriously you're going to be taken or what your role [among] the deckhands is going to be," she told Vulture. "So, yeah, stepping on as the first female bosun was a little nerve-racking in the sense that I wanted to make women proud."