Laura Bileskalne has publicly apologised to Adam Kodra and Margot Sisson after being fired from Below Deck Down Under on the most recent episode.
Season two of the spin-off wasn’t exactly easy sailing, but things came to a head on Monday’s episode when the cast returned to the boat after a boozy night out, forcing producers to step in on two different occasions.
In disturbing moments, Luke Jones wandered into Margot’s cabin and crawled into her bed totally nude while she was unconscious, before being forced to leave by the camera team.
Meanwhile, Laura was making passes on an uneasy Adam in the hot pool before attempting to massage him in his bunk.
Before falling asleep, he attempted to halt the issue by crawling over the stewardess with lotion.
‘I got a communication from producers instructing you to come down,’ a camera operator said.
Despite saying that she was leaving, she wouldn’t come down from the bunk, leading to a team member insisting: ‘This is when you have to step down and you need to go to your own cabin.
‘Laura, right now. Get down, go to your room.’
The next morning, Captain Jason Chambers informed the crew that Luke had been fired, and head stewardess Aesha Scott approached Adam to check on him.
‘I’ve noticed that Laura has been pretty intense with you. I just wanted to make sure that you’re feeling okay,’ she said.
The deckhand said that he didn’t ‘want to get anybody in trouble,’ and that he would be’more serious’ with her in the future.
Laura, who had previously been close to Luke, was outspoken about the bosun’s departure, which surprised her co-stars.
‘I’m so sad, I can’t believe Luke is gone’ Margot fumed as she unpacked the events with her, who was still distressed about the incident from the night before.
‘If he comes naked in my cabin, I’d be like, “Hello! Yes!”
In a subsequent chat, she argued that his termination was ‘unjust’ and should have served as a warning.
‘I think he just meant it as a joke, he’s a funny guy. I don’t think he meant anything bad. He wouldn’t rape you or anything,’ she told her colleague.
‘He’s a sexual person, I’m a sexual person, you’re a sexual person. We’re joking. That thing was probably like, “Hahaha”, we’re all drunk.’
Stunned by her statements, Margot recounted their talk to Aesha, who swiftly alerted Captain Jason – while also reporting Laura’s inappropriate behaviour with Adam.
Taking their advice into consideration, the captain summoned the stew to the wheelhouse to release her.
‘Adam feels uncomfortable with some moments out and he’s tried to say no. You’ve not listened to him and his boundaries to be set,’ he said. ‘After my multiple speeches with the crew about boundaries, about respect, did you not go to Margot and say, “Poor Luke. I wish he would come and see me”?
‘You’ve disrespected exactly what I set out to do.’
When she insisted that she had comprehended and respected his remarks, he said, ‘You didn’t demonstrate that. You going to Margot and saying that demonstrates that you haven’t listened to a thing I’ve said about limits and have showed little regard and empathy for Margot.
‘I’m trying to move forward as a team, I’m trying to get that behind us, and you’ve brought it straight back up. In that, I’m going to terminate your employment today.
‘I can’t go on with you as part of the team in the environment that I’m trying to set.’
Laura apologised for her conduct on Instagram after the scenes aired, but she has now made her account private.
‘My sincere apologies to Adam, I did not realize I made him feel uncomfortable and no one should be put in that position,’ she wrote in a post.
‘And to Margot to not been able to empathize. I was 29 when the show was filmed, 30 was my life-changer. I am 31 now and I am watching it as all of you, an entertainment show.’
It is unknown how the double-firing will affect the remainder of the crew and the attitude on board as they prepare to pick up another charter group.
Below Deck Down Under streams on in the US on Mondays, and on in the UK on the same day.
