Skipping out on a reunion is a cardinal sin in the Bravo-verse, but that's exactly what Below Deck Sailing Yacht's Ashley Marti just did.
The season three reunion aired June 27, and while the stewardess was nowhere to be found, that didn't stop her co-stars from sharing their thoughts on everything that went down with her and first mate Gary King this year—namely, the time they seemingly hooked up despite the fact that Gary was extremely intoxicated.
As host Andy Cohen put it, "You were really drunk, you told her to stop. From the viewers' perspective, you were sexually assaulted. Is that you felt?"
Gary prefaced his response by noting that while he and Ashley "aren't friends," he still felt the need to defend her. "I don't think there was anything of it and I think people are being very harsh to her," Gary said of the hook up. "I thank everyone for sticking up for me but there was nothing to it and I feel that everyone should leave Ashley alone on that circumstance because it wasn't how it seemed."
Andy pointed out that if the roles were reversed—more specifically, if Gary had initiated a drunken hookup and made a comment similar to that of Ashley's "You're f--king inside of me right now"—the situation could be quite serious.
"I understand that Andy, I really do," Gary replied. "I mean, it's not an ideal situation, to be honest. I personally wouldn't do something like that. But I can't stress this enough, I'd just like people to leave Ashley alone."
Gary also revealed that while he and Ashley aren't exactly on good terms, he did reach out to her once the hookup in question aired. "I just sent her a message saying, 'From the messages I'm getting, I can only imagine what you're receiving, so I just want to apologize for that and I just want you to not think about it, don't take it too hard.'"
Still, like most of the Below Deck Sailing Yacht cast, he wasn't amused that Ashley had skipped out on the reunion. Marcos Spaziani was the only crew member to come to her defense, theorizing that she may have just been too busy. However, Daisy Kelliher immediately shut him down.
"Marcos, we're all busy, OK?" the chief stew said, much to her other co-stars' amusement. "We all have jobs. We all have things to do. But we all knew that the reunion happens, so cut the busy bulls--t."
Daisy, for her part, was correct—Ashley didn't skip the reunion because she busy. As Ashley explained in an Instagram Live on June 26, she was a no-show because "at the time the reunion was filmed, all of the stuff with the bedroom scene was coming out," Ashley said. "And people were being very nasty, and I just felt like I didn't want to have to deal with it during the reunion."
The 24-year-old also insisted that she wouldn't have been able "to really tell my side of the story."
Naturally, the show went on without her. Throughout the reunion, Tom addressed the situation that led to his firing, Daisy and Gary continued to spark romance rumors, Gabriela Barragan reflected on leaving the charter and so much more.
Season three of Below Deck Sailing Yacht is now streaming on Peacock, where the reunion episode will launch on Tuesday morning.
(E!, Bravo and Peacock are all part of the NBCUniversal family.)