After only one charter, a new crew member joined Below Deck Down Under Season 4, and head chef Ben Robinson couldn’t have been more surprised when he recognized the galley hand coming aboard M/Y Katina in Canouan: Below Deck Mediterranean alum Elena “Ellie” Dubaich.
To make matters more awkward, Ben revealed he happened to have slid into her DMs just before the charter season started.
“I wrote to her two weeks ago, because I saw her on Instagram. And I really liked her page,” Ben explained in a confessional interview during Episode 3. “And I said, ‘Would you like to come for a drink?’ And now, she’s my f—king sous chef. S—t, the powers of manifestation!”
As word got around about Ben and Ellie’s familiarity, second officer João Franco and chief stew Daisy Kelliher speculated on the nature of their relationship.
“Like, he tried to hook up with her?” Daisy asked during the Feb. 16 episode, and João answered, “I don’t know. I won’t dig into that.”
RELATED: Captain Jason Reveals Why He Hired Chef Ben Just One Week Before Filming Started
Now, Ben and Ellie are clearing the air about their pre-charter interactions during the Below Deck Down Under After Show, and Ben revealed that he didn’t just message Ellie out of the blue.
“I had met her a month or so prior, very briefly, at a party,” Ben disclosed. “And one of her photos came up, and then I looked at her Instagram.”
Ellie answered a pressing question: did she say yes to Ben’s offer? She told After Show producers, “I was home in Slovenia at the time, so, I couldn’t go. But, if I had been in [Ft.] Lauderdale, I probably would have gone.”
Ben Robinson explains why he messaged Ellie Dubaich before Below Deck Down Under Season 4
Ben’s close friend, Below Deck down under alum Kate Chastain, pressed him for more details about his message to Ellie during the After Show.
“What time of the night did you want to ‘pick her brain’? 2 a.m.?” she sarcastically asked, and Ben admitted, “Like 4 a.m.” Kate jokingly responded, “You were like, ‘Hey, I’d love to discuss this.’ Okay.”
But Ben defended his decision to contact Ellie, pointing out, “We’re both Europeans, and you know, she’s very smart. She speaks like seven languages. I’m pretty deprived of interesting friends, you know, where I live in Ft. Lauderdale, and I thought it’d be cool.”
Ben also explained that he was just coming off a recent break-up with his fiancée, Kiara Cabral, which played into his decision. “I thought it’d be nice to have a chat. I was trying to get out of my shell,” he added.
“The universe has brought her to your galley!” Kate kid him.
RELATED: Go Inside Elena Dubaich’s “Fabulous” Life After Below Deck Med: “Going to the Top”
Ellie Dubaich and Ben Robinson reveal what happened when she joined Below Deck Down Under
Although the addition of a galley hand he already knew might seem fortuitous, Ben shared on the After Show it was anything but. “It didn’t seem like a win-win at the time. It was slightly awkward,” he admitted. “But, she handled it well.”
Ellie shed more light on what she was thinking the first time she walked into Ben’s galley in the Feb. 16 episode. “I was kind of like thinking that Ben might be attracted to me a little bit,” she told After Show producers. “So, I thought, ‘I don’t know. Is this going to affect our relationship at all? Or how it’s going to be between us?’ So, that thought did cross my mind.”
But Ben revealed neither he nor Ellie ever brought up the elephant in the room between them.
ICYMI, Ben shed more light on his much-anticipated Below Deck return and why he decided to come back.
