Below Deck Mediterranean is setting sail without longtime castmember Malia White.
But, the bosun made it clear that while she won't be on the show's upcoming seventh season, her departure has nothing to do with the fallout from Hannah Ferrier's controversial firing in 2020.
"I didn't leave because of anything that happened," Malia said during an interview with Showbiz Cheat Sheet. "I don't have bad feelings towards any part of Below Deck or anything that's happened."
As Below Deck Med fans may recall, Malia told Captain Sandy Yawn that Hannah had undeclared Valium and a CBD pen on board, leading to her dismissal in season five. (Hannah has since explained that the Valium was prescribed and the CBD was legal where they were sailing.)
She did admit to getting "a lot of heat for the whole Hannah thing," but once again insisted she was leaving for other reasons, including her "really bad" 2021 scooter accident and an upcoming oral exam she needs to prepare for.
"It's just a good time for me to take a break and take a step back," the 31-year-old explained. "I don't hold any regrets or anxiety toward the show. It's just what's happened has happened and time to move on from it. Everyone's learned, and it's time to just kind of move on."
Malia isn't ruling out a future return to Below Deck Mediterranean, though. "It's not that I might never come back to the show," she said, "I'm just not on the next season."
She'd even consider joining one of the other Below Deck franchises, like Below Deck Sailing Yacht or Below Deck Down Under.
"When I saw that Down Under has all this diving and stuff, I was like, 'Hey, how come I'm not on Down Under?' I want to go to Australia and go diving," Malia said. "So yeah, I'd definitely go there. And the captain is awesome. Captain Jason [Chambers]. I met him when we were in Fort Lauderdale, we were both taking classes and we ran into each other and yeah, he just seems like an absolute gem."
Ironically, Hannah—a Sydney, Australia native—exclusively told E! News in March that she was the reason Captain Jason decided to join the show in the first place. In the same interview, she weighed in on her firing and the role Malia and Capt. Sandy played in it.
"Saying, 'You have drugs on board. Are you going to flush your drugs?' blah, blah," Hannah recalled, "I was like, 'Why would I flush my medication down the toilet?' You shouldn't put that stigma where prescription medications for mental illness and recreational drugs are treated in the same way."
Looking back, she said that she's more upset with Capt. Sandy than Malia. "I feel like we'd even been in many situations where she would have liked to see the same result," Hannah said of Sandy, "but it couldn't happen. So I feel like with her, it was very much like, 'Yes, now I've got something!'"
Added the Bravo alum, "It just felt like there was so much behind-the-scenes stuff with Sandy that nobody ever saw."
But now, like Malia, Hannah's moved on. "It's just a job," she told E! News. "It's just a TV show and it's not who I am and it's not how I define myself."
Catch up with past seasons of Below Deck Mediterranean on Peacock.
(E!, Bravo and Peacock are all part of the NBCUniversal family.)