Below Deck Med’s Tumi Mhlongo Thinks Kyle Viljoen Is Talking About Her

Kyle Viljoen‘s shady comments about Natalya Scudder on Below Deck Mediterranean are making Tumi Mhlongo question her friendship with him.

Bravo offered a glimpse on Monday, October 23, at an upcoming episode where Kyle and Natalya throw digs at each other.

In the clip, Natalya pokes fun at Kyle’s behavior in front of charter guests, saying, “Kyle is lounging again.” Later, Kyle tells Tumi that she’s lucky not to be sharing a room with Natalya.

“Natalya can talk. You can be so glad,” he notes before Tumi asks, “That I’m not rooming with her?”

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In a confessional, Tumi admits she has concerns about how Kyle speaks about her when she isn’t around, adding, “I thought they were friends but if he is talking s—t about her he is definitely talking s—t about me.”

Season 8 of Below Deck Mediterranean initially introduced Natalya as the temporary chief stew while Tumi and Kyle were dealing with immigration issues. While off the boat, Tumi and Kyle formed a friendship which continued once they officially started working together.

However, Tumi’s relationship with Natalya has faced plenty of challenges. Natalya was previously at odds with her season 7 chief stew Natasha Webb and Kyle before patching things up with the latter once they stopped filming. After a rough introduction to Natalya, Tumi warned Kyle that she wasn’t afraid to stand her ground with her interior team.

“Giving you a heads up b/w us. I know you’re mates with her, but Nat needs to stay in her lane bc Tumi losing her s—t will end up in her walking off bc she had a diva moment,” Tumi wrote in a text during the October 9 episode, to which Kyle responded, “I’m sorry to hear this — I did tell you she’s something that came for all of us.”

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As Tumi’s issues with Natalya got worse, Kyle stepped in to attempt to mediate the situation. He told Natalya about Tumi’s text to him, which Natalya then mentioned to Captain Sandy after an argument with her chief stew.

“You’re in a leadership role and you need to rise above and figure this out because right now I am ready to put you both off the boat,” Sandy told Tumi about how to handle the situation.

The captain elaborated on her reaction to the drama, telling cameras on the October 16 episode, “You have to respect each other in the workplace. You can’t do this. This is behavior that can’t happen. In this situation I need to defuse it but then you need to step away and let the leader handle it. Because if I draw the line for them, they are never going to respect each other. Having said that, if I hear Natalya screaming at Tumi again and Tumi can’t defuse it, then I need to step in and make a decision.”

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During his own confessional, Kyle admitted that he had regrets about getting involved.

“I love [some] good gossip. But I am realizing that my involvement has made the situation worse. I shared with Tumi how my time went with Natalya [during season 7]. And Tumi’s response was, ‘I know you’re mates with her, but she needs to stay in her lane. Tumi losing her s—t will end in her walking off because she had a diva moment,’” he detailed. “I am really good at getting information. My biggest problem? I am not good at keeping the information. It’s not good. Trust me, I know.”

Tumi and Natalya were ultimately able to make amends, while Kyle still found himself caught in the middle due to his individual friendship with each coworker.

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“Although I love a good tea and I am glad that Natalya and Tumi made up about the text message — I am just not happy with Natalya,” he said. “Informing Sandy and using my name in that … Me revealing Tumi’s message to Natalya was an act of friendship. It wasn’t for Natalya to weaponize me against other people.”

Kyle concluded: “There’s only room for one gossip on this boat right now and that’s me. I am the tea queen. Self-proclaimed.”

Below Deck Mediterranean airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET.