Below Deck Down Under‘s Marina Marcondes de Barros felt incredibly frustrated when it came to Lara Rigby‘s leadership — but where do they stand now?
During an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Marina recalled being kept in the laundry room each charter, saying, “I raised the concern that we weren’t rotating and that the situation was a little unfair. Laura didn’t take it very well.”
Marina felt like she “didn’t have a voice anymore” after not being given room to grow.
“I didn’t want to create any conflict so I just made my peace with the fact that I was going to be housekeeping the whole time,” she shared. “But having [Captain] Jason [Chambers], somebody that I look up to, advocating on my behalf and showing that I am a hard worker and I deserve my chance to shine, it just gave me back my strength. I needed to go back there and ask [for what I wanted]. It felt like I wasn’t crazy.”
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The stew felt thankful for Jason’s support, adding, “I did deserve a chance to shine and I feel so blessed to have him by my side. I just hoped it made an effect on Laura.”
During season 3 of Below Deck Down Under, Lara was questioned not just by Marina about why she was kept in housekeeping. Stews are usually given the opportunity to go back and forth between service and laundry for the experience but Lara argued that Marina was very good where she was.
“I work in yachting for four years now and I know how boats work. Her saying that that’s how it goes and that’s how she’s supposed to go — it’s not true,” Marina told Us. “If you say you’re rotating the girls, you’re supposed to rotate the girls. Otherwise you just hire a housekeeping stew and you say to her, ‘You are a housekeeping stew.’”
Marina specifically questioned how Lara presented the work schedule to her. “The lack of communication, honesty and even empathy wasn’t nice,” she said. “But I did address that to her. She understood it and I just hoped she wouldn’t brush it off as if it was nothing. Because I was literally doing two girls’ jobs while her and Brianna [Duffield] were sharing one job, which was service. So it wasn’t an easy task. I was almost burned out and I just wish she could see my side instead of brushing it off if it was nothing.”
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She continued: “She needs to understand that kindness and sacrifice are two different things. Even though I’m there smiling, that’s a sacrifice that I’m doing for the team. I’m not being kind. I’m like, ‘OK, I’ll do housekeeping again. I don’t have time to sleep, eat or talk to my family. I only have a few hours and we still need to go out and potty and everything.’ So she just [needed to] appreciate it because I was tired.”
The issues didn’t stop there. Below Deck viewers currently have a front row seat to tension between Lara and Chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph, which had everyone on the crew choosing sides.
“It’s very uncomfortable when the chief stew and the chef are fighting because you don’t want to take sides. You are literally there to do your job. You just want them to be professional,” Marina explained. “If you have a problem personally, you deal with that after the trip is over — not in the middle of service. It was quite awkward and I wish they were a little more on top of it.”
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Marina didn’t reveal which side she chose — but she offered hints.
“I cannot say that somebody was right or wrong. What I’m going to say is somebody is very used to cameras and knows how to play a part,” she teased. “They know how to give a lot of information and let the river flow into a certain direction. That’s all I’m going to say.”
After all that drama, it comes as a surprise to some of Us that Below Deck Down Under is only halfway over. Marina hinted that the feuds — and hookups — are far from over after Captain Jason fired both Wihan du Toit and Johnny Arvanitis on screen.
“If you thought that the beginning of the season was spicy, just grab popcorn and sit down because you’re in for a show in the second half,” she added. “The tension that was high in the beginning might explode.”
Below Deck Down Under airs on Bravo Mondays at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
