Credit: Bravo
Below Deck Mediterranean star Malia White has decided to take some time away from the long-running franchise after garnering a large amount backlash surrounding the firing of veteran chief stew Hannah Ferrier.
Speaking with Brandi Glanville on the Brandi Glanville Unfiltered podcast, Malia had a ton of questions thrown at her about Hannah’s departure and the role she played in the scenario as Brandi is good friends with Hannah.
Brandi asked, “When you snitched on Hannah…were you really scared for other people, or did you guys just not get along?”
Malia explained, “Everyone takes it as I snitched on Hannah and that’s not exactly how it all went down but I understand that that’s how she feels and that’s how it looked.”
She also continued by saying that doesn’t dislike Hannah even though they butted heads while working together.
“I don’t dislike Hannah, that’s the thing, is Hannah and I in work mode we would sometimes be at each other, and we’d get frustrated with each other, but I’ve never disliked Hannah… I never disliked her or hated her or wanted to out her.”
Malia said that the reason Hannah was fired was that she didn’t have the right type of prescription for the Valium she had on board the ship. She also noted that it’s normal for the crew to take medication for anxiety as it’s a highly stressful job.
“There is a certain way to handle having prescription medication on board and it’s how we have to do it on every vessel, it’s just how it’s done for lots of reasons,” she told Brandi.
Malia said that Hannah got the right one in retrospect, but the damage was done.
“I got absolutely s*** on for something that… like I got told ‘Malia’s against mental health,’ ‘Malia’s a snitch,’ and I was like ‘f*** all of this,’ like I’m not against mental health,” Malia explained.
Since stepping away from the show, Malia has launched her own podcast titled Total Ship Show, which talks about the ins and outs of the yachting industry outside of what viewers see on the likes of reality shows.
Malia shared in a recent Showbiz Cheatsheet interview, “For the most part, my podcast won’t focus on the show at all. It will be outside of reality TV. Because a lot of people have the perception that I work for six weeks on camera and then that’s it. That’s not true. I’m a full-time yachtie now. I work full-time on a yacht, so it’s kind of just telling more of that side of the story and how that works.”