A Guide To The Most Scandalous Relationship Drama On Below Deck

Yachting is supposed to be a relaxing (albeit expensive) activity. But when it's your job, it can be pretty hectic. Add a bunch of single people your own age and a TV crew? Setting out on a yacht becomes as dramatic as an episode of "Real Housewives."

And yachting appears to attract especially, shall we say, dynamic personalities. There's Rocky Dakota, who stripped down and spectacularly swan-dived off the boat because she was annoyed by a staffing change. Or Chef Rachel Hargrove, who delivered a rather colorful rant and stormed off the yacht after reading a client preference sheet that rubbed her the wrong way. Or Chef Mila Kolomeitseva, who didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with serving microwaved steaks or nachos made of basic chips, jarred salsa, and packaged cheese to yacht guests.

So is it any wonder that the cast members on various permutations of "Below Deck" have chaotic love lives? They sail, they serve drinks, they cheat on their off-screen partners and each other. When you're stuffed into bunk rooms with a bunch of hot, single fellow dramatic reality TV stars, there are bound to be some broken hearts.

On the third season of "Below Deck," barely a drama-free minute went by thanks to staff firecracker Raquel "Rocky" Dakota — with an assist from queen bee Kate Chastain and grumpy Chef Leon Walker, of course. And before Dakota infamously jumped ship and swam to another boat to protest Walker's firing, she and bosun Eddie Lucas were enjoying a secret affair, frequently in the ship's laundry room.

Lucas actually had a girlfriend at the time, and his cheating with Dakota wasn't enough to end things. They attempted to work through his infidelity, but ultimately broke up. According to Distractify, Dakota moved to Hawaii and became a massage therapist.

Their ill-advised dalliance left a lasting impression on the "Below Deck" crews. "We now have cameras in the laundry room," Captain Lee Rosbach told Bravo, with Chastain adding, "They ruined it for everyone. This is why we can't have nice things, Eddie and Rocky."

Getting dumped via text? Bad. Getting dumped via text when the person who's dumped you happens to be a coworker who you live with? And he's texting you from one room away? That has to be even worse than the infamous "Sex and the City" Post-It note dumping, which was previously the worst TV dumping (albeit fictional) of all time.

While they were just a room apart on the yacht, Brian de Saint Pern of "Below Deck" Season 7 texted Courtney Skippon, "So we havent spoken about whats happening w us after the season ends... What are your thoughts?" He then went on to inform her that they were "just having fun." De Saint Pern later admitted during a reunion that it was "a stupid move on my part, but I didn't mean it like that." Skippon shot back, "You decided to text me in the middle of a workday so I couldn't talk about it."

Skippon later said on fellow former "Below Deck" star Hannah Ferrier's podcast that she'd never return to the show because it was too "embarrassing." It's safe to assume many of her peers on this list would agree.

Hannah Ferrier's relationship with a crew member was no less scandalous than her fling with a charter guest. The perennial chief stew and her one-time bosun boo fell out due to an argument over cigarettes.

Empson bought Ferrier about 50 euros' worth of cigs and was peeved when she failed to pay him back in a timely manner. It exploded into Empson insisting that Ferrier must choose whether she wants a guy who gives her "giggles" and a guy who can buy her a nice car, and then accused her of "digging for money." Ferrier asked him not to give her an ultimatum while they were drinking on a night out, but it seemed the damage was done.

The couple ended up going their separate ways. "In my eyes, if you owe someone money, you owe them money, no matter if you're girlfriend or boyfriend or whatever, everything is equal and should be split. She had a different opinion on that one," Empson said at the time (per Express). But there's one more weird twist: As Showbiz CheatSheet noted in 2021, Ferrier pointed out on a fan account that Empson was linked to someone named Hannah Roberts — which will be Ferrier's married name when she ties the knot with fiancé Josh Roberts. What a world.

Some dating experts argue that the term "ghosting" is overused and that people who don't text back after one measly date don't necessarily owe you a reason why. But one thing's for sure: when you drop out of someone's life without a trace after half a year of dating and don't explain why, that is 100% ghosting and it's not cool.

But that's exactly what "Below Deck Mediterranean" deckhand Robert Westergaard did to Jessica More. After a romantic season full of guest-cabin stays and promises to travel to Bali together as soon as they could, it looked like they might be the rare "Below Deck" couple that would go the distance. As she shared on "Watch What Happens Live," they made it to Bali, but Westergaard attempted to "back out" on More at the airport. They somehow surmounted that obstacle, but would break up soon after. She also said "his M.O. apparently is ghosting."

At the reunion, More accused Westergaard of sending steamy texts to fellow crew member Aesha Scott, according to People. Westergaard claimed he had a "brother-sister" relationship with Scott, but the X-rated text didn't scream family values. More might be thankful that Westergaard pulled the disappearing act after all.

Adam Glick of "Below Deck Mediterranean" let slip that he and Malia White had "gotten physical" before the charter seasons started, and it seemed like their brief encounter went to his head. White did say on the show that she found Glick attractive, but as "Below Deck Med" fans saw, she ended up starting a relationship with fellow deckhand Wes Walton instead.

Later, White implied that Glick liked her more than she liked him. "I realized, oh wow, this guy is far more invested than I got," White told Bravo's The Daily Dish. "We weren't in a relationship. We never dated. We hung out one time. So I think he was latching onto something that wasn't actually there."

At a "Below Deck Mediterranean" reunion on "Watch What Happens Live," Glick admitted to telling White he loved her early on, but said he'd gotten over it. That didn't stop host Andy Cohen from commenting on Glick's "misty" eyes, though. Old crushes die hard.

Bosun Malia White was adept at handling her chef boyfriend Tom Checketts' temper tantrums, and the two even colluded in a bunk assignment shake-up that annoyed most of the crew. They seemed like they'd be partners in crime to the end. But after COVID-19 disrupted the yachting season, White and Checketts ended up on different boats — and in Checketts' case, in someone else's bed.

"Yeah, we were, you know, working on different boats," she told Us Weekly. "It was in the pandemic [that] had just happened. So, it was impossible for us to see each other ... And, yeah, he found someone else on his boats, and I didn't know for a couple of months." She had confirmed their breakup a few months earlier on Instagram, but didn't spill the details until speaking to the magazine.

ScreenRant pointed out that Checketts stirred the pot, perhaps inadvertently, by leaving photos of them up on his Instagram in happier times. He must have learned this was a surefire way to stoke the gossip sites, because the photos are now gone.

João Franco and Brooke Laughton proved during the third season of "Below Deck Mediterranean" that Ross and Rachel from "Friends" aren't the only TV luminaries who have trouble agreeing on what a "break" is.

On the Season 4 premiere, Franco gave viewers update on their relationship status. "Things seemed perfect, and then I found out she cheated on me," he said. "I wanted to make it work even so, but she didn't want to. So, what can I do?" In an episode of "Below Deck After Show," Franco alleged that Laughton had begged him to come see her while they were figuring out whether they should stay together or not. Yacht hit the fan, however, when he learned she'd apparently connected with another guy. "I walked off, and that was the last time I ever spoke to her," he recalled. The Bravo cameras must have been furious they didn't catch that. In a statement to People, Laughton denied Franco's cheating allegations, calling the claims "very true to his character" and said they provided "some relief for his ego." 

Franco went on to become a boat captain, and Laughton's moved on, too. In 2021, she told Showbiz CheatSheet that she launched a company called Acclaimed with her sister. Oh, and she got engaged.