The bedlam that ensues after a boat hookup or romance within the Below Deck franchise is oftentimes reality TV gold and is fascinating for viewers to watch as all kinds of drama can unfold.
Between jealousy, hurt feelings, thoughts of what’s to come after the season, job pressure, other crew’s feelings, and disrespectful situations with the chaos that comes with sleeping with someone you work with, a lot can go wrong.
Plenty of boat romances have played out on Below Deck, Below Deck Mediterranean, and Below Deck Sailing Yacht. Some of them ended successfully and with relatively little drama.
However, there have been others that were filled with drama and ended in memorable blowups.
This list captures the boat trysts that went awry for one reason or another and played out in spectacular fashion for viewers to watch and have ingrained in their memories.
These are the hookups that turned from fun, flirty, wild, and whimsical to utter chaos in the course of a charter season.
1. Jessica More and Rob Westergaard
Rob had a girlfriend that he was on the outs with when he hooked up with Jessica on Season 5 of Below Deck Mediterranean. That didn’t matter to Jess until Rob replied to his ex-girlfriend when she reached out for his support about the breakup.
From there, the toxicity boiled over and what was once a fun and frivolous boat romance quickly turned into a bevy of arguments that were exacerbated by Rob telling Jess that he loved her only after a few days.
Ultimately, and despite his better judgment, Rob decided to ditch the engineering position that was given to him so he could advance his career and opted to go with Jess to Bali. Needless to say, their relationship was short-lived after that.
2. Adam Glick, Malia White, and Wes Walton
Adam and Malia kept the secret that they had hooked up before coming on the boat during Season 2 of Below Deck Mediterranean and decided to act brand new when they met onscreen.
Malia’s fondness and attraction for her bosun and boss Wes grew and ended up in a kiss. However, that same night Malia shared a kiss with Adam. In a fit intended to stop the spread of gossip, Malia announced that both Adam and Wes had kissed her.
The three of them were able to laugh about it for a short time before Adam’s jealousy took over and he started to become aggressive towards Wes. In the end, Malia left the charter single and remained cordial with both men.
3. Ben Robinson and Kat Held
Ben and Kate would become absolute messes when they drank and totally fed into each other which led to boat hookups on Seasons 1 and 2 of Below Deck.
Although Ben was very turned off by Kat’s “demonic trailer park” behavior when she drank he looked past that when he was drunk too.
During Season 2, both of them had significant others but decided to get together anyway. They tried to keep it a secret but failed majorly as the camera crew caught on to what they were doing. A suspicious stain was also left in the room that they stayed in which all but gave them away to the rest of the crew.
4. Eddie Lucas and Raquel ‘Rocky’ Dakota
Eddie was the bosun on Season 3 of Below Deck and Rocky was a stewardess who had an unhinged and crazy personality.
Eddie was in a serious relationship that was on the rocks because his girlfriend cheated in the recent past which gave way to his moments of weakness with Rocky.
The pair hooked up several times in the laundry room, and when Rocky spread the word around about it because she was catching feelings, Eddie point-blank denied it until the end of the charter season when he came clean.
Rocky totally lost it when Eddie wouldn’t admit to the affair despite the fact that she had text message evidence. She jumped off the boat and swam to another vessel in an outrageous display of chaos over the situation.
Captain Lee was extremely disappointed in Eddie and many crew and the audience judged his character for it.
5. Rayna Lindsey, Jake Foulger, and Fraser Olender
Jake and Rayna made out on the crew’s first night out and talked about explicit sexual things on Season 9 of Below Deck.
The next time the crew went out they ended up in the hot tub at the end of the night where Rayna asked for a three-way kiss with Fraser which turned out sloppy. Jake then dropped the bomb on both of them before they went their separate ways to bed that he had a fiance.
The following time they all went out, Jake and Fraser made out in the backseat on the car ride home but Jake revealed that he identifies as straight. The next day, both men said they didn’t remember the snog but Fraser didn’t want Jake to think he was actually into him.
6. Brooke Laughton, Joao Franco, and Kasey Cohen
Joao did his best to play the field between Brooke, a hopeless romantic, and Kasey, a virgin, on Season 3 of Below Deck Mediterranean until he was forced into making a decision between the two women.
He ungracefully chose Brooke by making out with her in view of Kasey after he had just told Kasey to come and stay with him in South Africa. Meanwhile, Brooke had another man on the boat, Colin, pining after her.
Joao and Brooke left the boat together and continued their romance for a while before Brooke ultimately broke Joao’s heart by cheating on him.
7. Hannah Ferrier and Conrad Empson
Hannah enjoyed having the attention and affection from young cute bosun Conrad on Season 3 of Below Deck Mediterranean.
But as Hannah became unraveled by her anxiety and deep-seated mistrust in men, she started acting out in ways that really turned Conrad off. And Hannah’s antics were only exacerbated by drinking.
One night, in particular, Conrad was hiding from Hannah who was scouring the boat looking for him. When she finally found him she ended up seducing him, although it did not help the ugly state of their boat romance.
8. Adam Glick and Jenna MacGillivray
Adam and Jenna realized that they were really fond of each other when working closely together on Season 1 of Below Deck Sailing Yacht. Eventually, they couldn’t control themselves and ended up making out. Both of them lost focus in their jobs and were big into PDA much to the dismay of the other crew.
To make matters worse, their relationship became volatile after they had sex and Jenna told Adam that she and her stewardess Georgia had slept with the same guy which disgusted Adam.
From there they had a series of nasty and emotionally abusive fights that played out for viewers and affected their jobs and the relationships with the other crew.
Jenna and Adam left the boat together but didn’t last long before breaking up.
9. Alli Dore, Gary King, and Sydney Zaruba
Gary wanted to hook up with most of the women on the boat but had to decide between Sydney and Alli. Sydney aggressively went after Gary who gave in to her not-so-subtle hints and they ended up having sex.
Gary immediately regretted his decision because it was obvious that Sydney caught feelings but Gary was starting to have deeper feelings for Alli.
Sydney told Alli that she was in love with Gary which Alli tried to ignore because she liked Gary back. At long last, Gary had some intimacy with Alli after telling her he only made out with Sydney, which was a lie.
Alli found out from Sydney that in fact, she had sex with Gary which outraged her. It still didn’t stop the three of them from taking part in the crossing altogether after the charter season. Sydney played cool about Alli and Gary’s relationship as they moved into the same cabin on the boat, but their romance didn’t last.
Below Deck airs Mondays at 9/8c on Bravo.