‘Below Deck’ Guest Explains What Really Happened With the Room Arrangements
Below Deck fans and crew shaded a recent charter guest on the show when she refused to share a room with one of the other women in her group.
Cameras followed the group from Charleston, South Carolina as they chose rooms during the first few moments on Valor. But when it came time to put guests Jamie Stone and Lauren Taylor in a room, Stone learned the only room available had one bed. She is seen telling chief stew Kate Chastain she was told she’d have her own room and refused to share with Taylor. “We all want our own room Jamie, but this is how many rooms we actually have,” Chastain says in a confessional.
Chastain then told Stone she’d be in the room and that she’d make the sky lounge comfortable for Taylor. Taylor looks uncomfortable as she realizes she’s going to be sleeping on a couch. Later, Taylor shares with Captain Lee Rosbach that she’s been couch surfing. Rosbach moves Taylor into his quarters and rides the couch instead. Rosbach had some choice words about Stone during the episode and in his blog.
Stone says she had only met Taylor
Stone took a tremendous amount of heat for her actions on the show. Viewers skewered her for not only refusing to share the room (which also meant sharing a bed) with Taylor, but they also snarked at her comments about the crew forgetting her birthday.
But Stone shared on Twitter that she had only met Taylor (and most of the group) on the vacation and it was an incredibly awkward situation. “I think it’s great that some people can instantly feel comfortable with others in what is meant to be a safe place, such as the place you sleep at night,” she posted on Twitter. “But I have boundaries, and whereas I’m sure Lauren is a great person I met her literally right before we got on the boat and it takes me time to get to know someone and feel comfortable.”
“To attack my personal sense of safety and comfort feels unfair to me, especially after seeing maybe 10 minutes of me on a reality tv show. I had a good time on the show and Bravo and the producers voluntarily offered me my own room weeks ahead of the charter.”
There is more to the story
Stone added that she told Taylor she didn’t want her to be forced to sleep in the sky lounge either. “Most times you don’t see the uncut footage – I told Lauren after the room tour that I didn’t want her to be forced to sleep in his private lounge and she said, ‘let me try it and I’ll let you know if it’s awful.’ She seemed fine with it, and if she wasn’t that was never expressed to me.”
She completed her post by sharing she’s been cyberbullied and attacked. One person suggested she should have reconsidered her approach at the time. “If you wanted your own space you should have taken the sky lounge, I don’t know you or why it was important to you, it just looked bad, IMHO.”
Stone agreed. “In retrospect you are probably right (others have said this but you didn’t call names so thank you!) if I’m being very honest the camera added a level of discomfort that I wasn’t prepared for and that’s my own fault. I don’t think I’m built for realty tv,” she replied.
