Bravo Courtney Veale
Most seasons of “Below Deck” involve at least one boat romance but Courtney Veale from seasons 6 and 7 of “Below Deck Mediterranean” has just made claims about her own boatmance with her cast mate on both seasons, Mzi “Zee” Dempers.
Veale and Dempers met on season 6 and one of the storylines that season was the apparent developing romance between them, with Dempers revealing that he had a crush on Veale and the two sharing a couple of flirty dances and a kiss or two during their crew nights off. However, while speaking with Bobby Norris and Stephen Leng on FUBAR Radio’s Access All Areas, Veale said most of that romance was manufactured by producers.
“With me and Zee, it was just a tequila romance and I knew that, just one night,” she told the radio show hosts. “The next day I actually spoke to him and said ‘I think we’re just friends’, but obviously they didn’t use that bit, they used the bits where we are dancing and flirting whilst we’re working. And then by the end of the season, we were in this whole romance!”
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Courtney Veale Claimed That Producers Used Moments of Drunkenness to Encourage Romantic Situations
Veale explained that certain situations between her and Dempers were encouraged by producers, including when he bought her flowers during season 6. “They had asked Zee when he was drunk, ‘I don’t suppose you want to buy Courtney flowers?’, and then he was drunk like, ‘Oh yeah, maybe.'”
She said he was then told by producers a couple of days later that there would be flowers delivered to their table. “’12 red roses for Courtney,'” she added, “and he was like ‘What?!'”
The radio hosts asked Veale how she felt about that and she said she felt “pretty fine” with it and she expected it for a TV show and it was good that she and Dempers were such good friends. However, she said from his perspective, “I think he probably felt a bit set-up.”
The stewardess-turned-deckhand explained that the show does portray the day-to-day job of a yachtie pretty well and clarified that none of the scenes are scripted. Despite that, she said, “They definitely love to have a play about with the edits and they’re very clever about what they do… They definitely edit it in a way like if they don’t have a romance going on, then they’ll kind of make one.”
‘Below Deck’ Bosun Eddie Lucas Said Producers ‘Facilitate’ Some of the Drama on the Show
Another “Below Deck” star made similar comments recently regarding the edit of the show and the drama that viewers see. While speaking with The Baltimore Banner, Eddie Lucas said the drama on the show isn’t scripted but is “facilitated” by producers.
The former bosun and first officer said they use various ways to facilitate drama, such as casting certain personality types that might clash together and putting them in stressful environments without much sleeping time.
While on a normal yacht, a lot of crew members will take their time off to rest and catch up on sleep between charters, Lucas shared that on “Below Deck” the cast members are encouraged by producers to go out, drink and party.
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