Credit: Laurent Basset/Bravo
Captain Jason Chambers was forced to fire two crew members amid back-to-back episodes of Below Deck Down Under on Monday. And as the shocking episodes played out, both the fired Luke Jones and those impacted spoke out on their Instagram pages.
As Luke seemingly downplayed his inappropriate behavior toward Margot Sisson, whose bed he climbed into while naked as she slept after a wild night of partying, Aesha Scott and other cast members spoke out in her defense as details of the episode were uncovered.
“We had an incident last night and I want to stress that this is a place where we respect each other. Our cabin is our safety zone. That door is our boundary,” Jason told his crew at a meeting on the August 7 episode, via Us Weekly. “That door is not to be opened unless it is consensual. To walk into someone else’s room without consent [while] indecent is my limit.”
After Luke got upset with producers when they intervened amid his inappropriate behavior towards Margot, Jason removed him from the boat and gave him the axe the following day.
Meanwhile, after Laura Bileskalne defended Luke, suggesting he shouldn’t have been condemned for his disturbing behavior, Jason learned she too had acted inappropriately, with Adam Kodra, and fired her as well.
“Adam feels uncomfortable with some moments out [with you] and he’s tried to say no. You have not listened to him and his boundaries to be set,” Jason told her. “After my multiple speeches with the crew about boundaries and respect, did you not go to Margot and say, ‘Poor Luke. I wish he had come in and seen me?’ You’ve disrespected exactly what I actually set out to do.”
“I am trying to move forward as a team. I’m trying to get that behind us and you have brought it straight back up,” he added. “I am going to terminate your employment today. I can’t go on with you as part of the team in the environment I am trying to set.”
Following the episode, Aesha, who applauded Jason for discussing the incident with the crew prior to terminating Luke and Laura’s employment, took to her Instagram page, where she shared her thoughts in a video.
“Hello everyone, how are we? So obviously the episodes have come out now and I know that everyone has got a lot of opinions and there’s a lot of feelings and emotions and all these things coming up for a lot of people. I know obviously it was a lot for myself at the time as well but I just wanted to take the opportunity to come on here and just remind everyone of the main message that was shown on the episode, which is that women, and actually everyone, has the right to go out and have fun and feel safe and that is just the f-cking end of it,” she declared. “There’s no questions or ifs or buts or maties. That is just the end of it. So please, please, just keep an eye on your friends. Keep an eye on your friends and we just need to share the love. Keep an eye out.”
Aesha also shared a couple of photos of herself and Margot on the boat.
“My little cherub … What a light of the season you were for me!!! Women should always support women ad I will always support you,” she wrote.
On Chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph‘s page, she stood up for Margot as well.
“Women should be able to be [black-out] drunk if they want to. We should be able to stand in a room naked and not have anyone do anything to us,” she wrote, adding that she started a petition to make background checks a legal requirement for seafarers.
Along with a photo of himself and Margot, Harry van Vliet penned an emotional note to his castmate.
“Dearest Margot, what you went through should never have happened,” he shared. “I am so sorry that you had to go through something like that. I know that since it happened you have been recovering and getting on and living your awesome life which is so great to see considering the situation. Keep pushing through and striving in life, good things are coming your way I know it!”
After receiving massive amounts of online support, Margot took to her Instagram Story, where she shared a series of thank you notes to her Below Deck co-stars.
“I want to give a HUGE thank you to Jason… for his immediate response to the situation, leaving no room for any BS,” she wrote to the captain. “There are unfortunately a lot of captains who would choose to sweep something like this under the rug. I am grateful that Jason is not one of them. Thank you for repeatedly making me feel safe and supported. I wish every captain [was] just like you. Sending you so much love right now.”
She also shared personal messages to Aesha and Tzarina, along with photos of herself with the two women.
“Thank you [Harry] for continuing to be perfect. I love watching all of our interactions, you made me smile every single day and you are an incredible person in every way possible. You deserve the world,” Margot wrote to Harry.
And to Adam, she added, “Last but certainly not least thank you to [Adam Kodra]. So far [Below Deck hasn’t] aired a single interaction between us but he was such an important part of my life on the boat. After [Luke] got fired, Adam immediately came to me and said if he had known what was happening, he would [have] done anything and everything to protect me.”
“He said I was like a sister to him and it was so sweet and I truly adore him so much. It is so disappointing that his soft side is not being shown nearly enough on the show and you are not seeing the Adam that we all know and love. I was completely oblivious to what was going on between him and Laura, and I wish I could go back and be there for him more. Neither of us deserved this. I love you Adam!” she continued.
Amid the support, Luke himself spoke out, seemingly with an Instagram post that defended his actions — and making it clear the opinions of others are none of his concern.
“It doesn’t matter what they think about you because you don’t care,” the message, shared by Best of Bravo on Instagram, read. “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective. Not the truth. Take ownership and move forward.”
Below Deck Down Under season two airs Mondays at 8/7c on Bravo.