Rough seas! Viewers have had a front row seat to some of the biggest reality TV feuds since the Below Deck franchise debuted in 2013.
The show’s spinoff series Below Deck Mediterranean shocked viewers when Hannah Ferrier and Captain Sandy Yawn‘s inability to see eye to eye turned into the most memorable firing to date.
Since the captain joined the show in season 2, the OG chief stew struggled under the pressure of pleasing her boss. Following several onscreen ups and downs, Hannah and Sandy’s issues reached their peak when Malia White reported the Australia native for having Valium and a CBD vape pen in her cabin.
During season 5, the captain made the controversial decision to fire Hannah due to Maritime Law. At the time, Hannah called out Malia for misrepresenting the fact that she didn’t have a prescription for the Valium.
“I like Malia’s arranging skills,” she tweeted, referencing the photo that her castmate took on camera. “So that’s prescribed Valium, CBD (which is legal in Spain), a lighter (not sure what this has to do with anything) and my passport holder… And for anyone who’s interested the prescription is on the other side of the box as shown… #belowdeckmed.”
Amid backlash for the surprise firing, Sandy addressed Hannah’s claims that there was one-sided competitiveness between them since they met.
“That’s not true. I’m a real captain and I expect a level of service,” Sandy told Showbiz CheatSheet in April 2021. “Hannah was there for the camera. I was there as a captain. Two different things. I actually care about yachting. And I care about my job. I’m a captain and she waits tables.”
Hannah, for her part, wasn’t shocked by Sandy’s comments about their different positions in the yachting industry. “This is the thing, nothing that she says like that takes me by surprise because I’ve known for years that’s her view on the interior and on people who work on the interior,” she exclusively told Us Weekly in May 2021. “So it came as a shock to other people, but it didn’t come as a shock for me because I’ve always felt very second rate to deck crew and things like that when I’ve worked with her.”
Sandy later noted that she didn’t have any issues with Hannah following their difficult time on Below Deck Med. “She’s still angry. It’s so hard because for me, it wasn’t personal. It’s about my career,” the Florida native told Us in September 2021. “When a crew member shows me something and three other crew members are copied on it, my hands are tied. Yeah. I can’t.”
One month prior, Malia also addressed her decision to report Hannah after they had a fight. “I don’t regret doing my job, but I do regret how I handled it,” the bosun, shared with Us, noting that she could have “handled it a lot better.”
For Malia, watching the show back offered her a new perspective on how she could have approached the situation. “I would have maybe tried to stay out of it a little bit more [because] as a bosun you don’t want to get involved with crew things. But … you’re in that spot where you are directly under the captain,” she added at the time.
Scroll down for all the most memorable Below Deck feuds throughout the years: