RHONY alum Jill Zarin got on the crew's nerves during an appearance two weeks ago on the Bravo reality show, demanding a specific type of ice and criticizing everything from the food to how the bathrooms were stocked.
Despite a Below Deck crew member walking back some of her harsher on-air comments about Real Housewives of New York City alum Jill Zarin after her controversial appearance two weeks ago, the ship's previous captain, Lee Rosbach, pushed even harder.
"Below Deck had a tough week," he said on his Salty with Captain Lee podcast. "They had Jill Zarin on."
Jill Zarin Vows 'No Cameras' Next Vacation After Below Deck Calls Her 'Demanding,' 'Freeloading Guest'
View StoryIn fact, he took the time to break down each of the reality star's most pointed complaints about the service on the St. David yacht, starting with perhaps the funniest.
In one scene, Zarin asked Stew Barbie Pascual to change the cubes in her Diet Coke because she didn't like their shape. Rosbach's successor Captain Kerry Titheradge, who was on board with Zarin, appeared to find it all amusing.
"She didn’t like any of the ice apart from a specific one. From a specific freezer," he told Us Weekly ahead of the episode's premiere. "So we had to have a specific ice box that kind of followed wherever she went. I love it. If that’s the biggest concern, then we should [be good]."
Rosbach was not nearly so tolerant, though, of Zarin's demands. "F—k it, drink your Diet Coke hot. I don't give a s—t," he said on his podcast.
He also pushed back on Zarin's complaints about the lack of toiletries stocked in the bathrooms, saying that it "looks tacky" on a yacht to have them just sitting out.
Below Deck's Captain Jason Chambers and Aesha Scott Say Consent Episode Was 'Difficult' to Watch (Exclusive)
View StoryUltimately, Rosbach's assessment of the Real Housewife was, "I wonder if she brought some deodorant for her attitude because it sure as hell stunk."
Rosbach had nothing but praise for his successor, saying that Captain Ketheridge handled things just right by telling his crew that their main focus was to cater to their "primary" client -- which was not Jill Zarin.
"What is happening is that Jill is rattling our cage too much and we are focusing on Jill. We should be focusing on the primary," Kerry told his team on the episode.
Rosbach agreed, emphasizing that "you take care of the primary. Everybody else is on their own."
During the episode, Pascual shared her frustrations in dealing with the demanding Zarin, saying, "I think she’s annoying and I think it is too much. You are a freeloading guest who is extremely demanding."
But after watching the episode back, and with the passage of time, Pascual's views had softened somewhat. "You guys, I watched the show back, and I don’t think that Jill was as bad as it looked," she posted to her Instagram Stories after the show aired, per Us Weekly.
Captain Jason Chambers Reveals What Really Went Down with Lala Kent and RHOM's Adriana de Moura (Exclusive)
View StoryShe must have seen it differently than Rosbach, though, who called out her softening stance on his podcast.
"Some of the Below Deck stars have since come to Zarin's defense — including [Barbie] — who after watching the episode back, said, 'I don't think Jill was as bad as it looked,'" he said. "The only thing I know is the camera doesn't lie."
After the public backlash, Zarin said that viewers only got a one-sided view of what went down, as she didn't get any confessionals to offer additional insight from her point of view.
After the episode aired, the reality alum jumped onto her own Instagram Stories, per The Daily Mail, to thank her traveling companions for "an amazing trip" and to declare, "We made a great show together but this summer's trip NO cameras!"
She also blasted the ship's Chief Stew Fraser Olender for not publicly defending her after the episode aired, despite her claiming he'd privately told her she did nothing wrong and felt bad about the public backlash she was facing.
"I tried to reach out with him on Instagram," Zarin told US Weekly of Olender. "He just said, 'I feel bad that you are getting a lot of hate, and you don’t deserve it.' And I said, 'Well, can you say something?' And he ignored it."
New episodes of Below Deck air Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo.