
Captain Sandy Yawn of Below Deck has come under fire for comments she made about her co-star Fraser Olender, referring to him as a “cancer” on the boat.
During season 10 of the reality programme, Captain Sandy – who briefly replaced Captain Lee Rosbach on the show due to health difficulties – had a disagreement with Fraser in front of the rest of the crew.
The head steward stated that the captain’s demeanour disgusted him, and their working relationship looks to have deteriorated further in a recent incident.
During a tense confrontation, Captain Sandy took aim at Fraser’s leadership skills, telling him: ‘When I see where we can change things, I expect you to go downstairs and shoulder what I just told you. That needs to be improved and not permeate the boat with cancer.
She continued, according to Us Weekly: ‘You have now infected my entire program. The fish stinks at the head and right now you are that head. What you have done is created the worst experience that I have ever experienced on a boat with a chief stew.’
Following Captain Sandy’s statements, Fraser burst into tears, expressing how ‘upset’ she made him feel and how she ‘named me the crew’s cancer’.
‘If someone refers to cancer to me ever again – with what I went through with my father – it makes me disgusted. The fact that she thinks so negatively of me makes me feel utterly horrendous,’ he added.
Several individuals have voiced their ‘disgust’ after hearing Captain Sandy’s description of Fraser, with one pointing out that the captain had personal experience with cancer.
‘Knowing that Sandy’s partner has also recently battled cancer, makes it all the more disgusting that she would refer to Fraser as the cancer of the boat,’ one person tweeted.
‘Who calls one of their employees a cancer, what a terrible thing to say to anyone let alone sweet Fraser! Captain Sandy….that was disgusting!’ another stated.
Someone else commented on Fraser’s personal connection to cancer in his life, saying, ‘Oh no… Fraser crying right now is so so sad. I hope Sandy SEES that her calling HIM a cancer on the boat when he lost a relative to it makes her aware of how horrible she looks on the show right now.’
Viewers slammed the statement as ‘unforgivable’ and ‘the worst thing that could be spoken to someone’.
Captain Sandy previously revealed that she was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2015, which was stage two at the time.
In an Instagram post shared in 2019, she wrote: ‘4 years ago Feb 21st I was riding my motorcycle to the Miami Boat show and was hit by a car. Due to that crash the doctors discovered a tumor on my kidney. It was cancer.
‘4 years ago today I had the tumor removed and I am alive and cancer free. The yachting industry was there for me and of course my family & friends. Today I want all of you to know how much I appreciate you and life! May I never forget and pay it forward. Never stop believing! I love you all!’
Below Deck airs on Bravo on Mondays, and is available to stream on the same day.