Captain Lee and Jill Zarin NBC/Getty Images
Below Deck‘s Captain Lee Rosbach is offering his perspective on the recent guest drama — and he isn’t Team Jill Zarin.
“Below Deck had a tough week,” Lee, 74, told his “Salty With Captain Lee” podcast cohost Sam DeCavalcanti on an episode earlier this month. “They had Jill Zarin on.”
Lee started by discussing Jill’s ice reference, which was joked about on the show. Jill, 60, notably requested only Diet Coke and not Diet Pepsi before asking stew Barbie Pascual to add one specific type of ice to her drinks.
“F—k it, drink your Diet Coke hot. I don’t give a s—t,” Lee said on his podcast before addressing the bathroom drama. In an April episode of Below Deck, Jill also told Barbie she wasn’t happy to see the bathroom not stocked with toiletries.
The Below Deck franchise has had its fair share of chaos over the years, but there were some moments that stood out more. During season 7 of the Bravo show, chief stew Kate Chastain and bosun Ashton Pienaar had a scary confrontation when the latter was drunk after a night out. Ashton ended up punching […]
According to Lee, toiletries are not put out for guests on yachts because that “looks tacky.” The captain didn’t see Jill’s perspective about providing the option because he never had that experience on his charters.
“I wonder if she brought some deodorant for her attitude because it sure as hell stunk,” Lee quipped.
Lee, who was replaced by Captain Kerry Titheradge after 10 seasons of Below Deck, praised the St. David captain for his response. Kerry told his crew on screen that they need to be catering to their primary — who wasn’t Jill — first.
“What is happening is that Jill is rattling our cage too much and we are focusing on Jill. We should be focusing on the primary,” Kerry pointed out. “We can’t drift away from what the primary wants, otherwise we make more and more mistakes.”
Lee agreed with Kerry, noting on his podcast, “You take care of the primary. Everybody else is on their own.”
Lee concluded: “Some of the Below Deck stars have since come to Zarin’s defense — including [Barbie] — who after watching the episode back, said, ‘I don’t think Jill was as bad as it looked.’ The only thing I know is the camera doesn’t lie.”
Jill Zarin is pulling back the curtain of her time on Below Deck. Jill’s two-day charter aboard the St. David boat aired across two episodes on Bravo in April. During her stay, Jill vocalized some of her concerns to the crew — including the food being cold and service taking a long time. “I’m good […]
After Jill’s episodes caused backlash from some viewers, the former Real Housewives of New York City star defended herself.
“I’m good with everything I did,” she exclusively told Us Weekly. “[However], I don’t agree with how they reacted to why I said what I said on the show. So I kind of came back and gave my point of view because I don’t get an interview on the show. I don’t get a confessional.”
Jill called the situation “one-sided” without her perspective being taken into account.
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Over the years, Below Deck viewers have been surprised with cameos from some of the biggest Real Housewives stars. During season 7 of Below Deck, Alexis Bellino made a memorable appearance alongside then-boyfriend Andy Bohn. After her divorce from Jim Bellino was finalized, the Real Housewives of Orange County star moved on with Bohn and […]
“I felt it necessary to set the record straight and there’s more things to set the record straight on, but there’s only so many hours in a day,” she joked. “I didn’t have any downsides to filming. I actually enjoyed it, I had a great time. I think that I learned things when I was on the boat.”
Jill said her frustration came from what didn’t end up airing, concluding, “There’s a couple of scenes that you miss that they cut out of the show. There’s only 50 minutes in a show and they’re going to focus on the drama.”
Below Deck season 11 airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.