Below Deck Down Under lost a cast member — and they are speaking out about getting fired on screen.
During the Monday, May 4, episode of the hit Bravo series, Mike Durrant was dismissed by Captain Jason Chambers after Daisy Kelliher brought up the most recent issue that she had with the deck/stew. Mike exited the boat after facing various challenges amid his time on the Katina.
“It was a long time coming and a lot of my behavior was unacceptable,” Mike exclusively told Us Weekly in a statement about his departure. “I feel like this was probably just the icing on the cake. When I had back chatted to Daisy — especially since she is someone who is a superior — and I never meant it in a disrespectful manner.”
Mike recalled approaching the conversation with his boss in a light-hearted way, adding, “When I realized what I said, I was like, ‘Oh, that was probably a bit too far.’ Especially with Daisy, who was in charge of us. Daisy made the right call asking us to leave the boat. I knew deep down that this is my time.”
Below Deck and its spinoff series may be reality TV shows, but there can be real-life consequences for the crew’s actions both on and off the ship. Over the years, stars including Hannah Ferrier, Peter Hunziker and Shane Coopersmith have been fired from their respective charters for a variety of reasons. Below Deck Mediterranean’s Hannah […]
While reflecting on his exit, Mike said he knew there “wasn’t any chance of winning the job back.”
“I was out of luck. For me, I was actually more disappointed. I hadn’t just let myself down, I had also let everyone else down. I was actually upset about how things went down,” he continued. “I was just having fun and I didn’t mean any harm by it and I was just enjoying the ride. Then it reality hit — and the crew were a man down when they obviously had to put the extra effort in.”
Mike joined season 4 of Below Deck Down Under with a presence in the interior and exterior. Those positions came with their own set of challenges as both Daisy and João Franco found that Mike wasn’t pulling his weight in their departments.
“I was always with the guests quite a lot. But that also meant that Daisy was without a part of the interior team. So in the jobs I should have been doing — that I wasn’t doing — is where I let them down. I don’t look back and think everything I did was correct. I look back and go, ‘I understand where I went wrong.’ I never had to just put that extra bit of effort into just helping out in the interior,” he admitted to Us. “I should have had a bit more of a mature approach.”
He continued: “I should have probably took Daisy aside and I should have just had a chat with her about finding this very difficult. I was using this to wind people up and entertain people as a source of relief and a source of not having to worry about doing the job.”
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 […]
Mike also addressed the comment he made to Alesia Harris about not doing anything wrong.
“We had this banter where we would go back and forth with each other. I would wind Alesia up. I wasn’t playing dumb,” he clarified. “I knew deep down that I had made a mistake — as well as various other mistakes. Looking back now, I hold accountability of what I did and for me it’s more I have to learn from that. I have to learn where I went wrong and not let anyone down again. Now is just learning from those mistakes and moving forward — and understanding where I went wrong.”
In addition to taking ownership of his mistakes, Mike wanted to clarify a misconception viewers may have about him, saying, “I had obviously seen a lot of comments about me having issues with the women on board. Something I wanted to clear up is if it had been a male chief stew and male stews, I would have been exactly the same. It was more about the department rather than about who I was working with. I didn’t enjoy working in that department and I was 90 percent working in that department.”
Below Deck Down Under airs on Bravo Mondays at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
