Former 'Below Deck' Star Suing Bravo for $850 Million Over Sexual Harassment
Emile Kotze is suing Bravo, NBCUniversal, and the producers of "Below Deck" for $850 million. The former deckhand claims he was sexually harassed and put in dangerous situations after being tricked into doing the show.
Kotze was 23 when he joined Season 3 in summer 2015. He says he was told the reality show following superyacht crew members was a "documentary-style" series that would benefit his career. Instead, he alleges the show subjected him to a hostile work environment for ratings and defamed him through deceptive editing.
The lawsuit was filed in June 2025. Kotze is seeking $850 million total, including $123 million in lost future earnings as a yacht captain.
What He Says Happened
Producers pressured him into a "showmance" with crewmember Raquel "Rocky" Dakota. They allegedly pushed him to drink excessive alcohol and told him a "cheesy" line to say to her. The footage got edited to make him look like a "lust-driven youth," according to the suit.
Kotze claims producers used "Frankenbiting" on him. That's when producers take clips of things said out of context and stitch them together. He says they edited an episode to splice a scene where he joked he "might just marry Rocky" with a scene of Rocky rejecting him. This made him look "obsessively infatuated" with her.
He describes an incident where cast members were pressured to drink. After producers stirred up drama with Rocky, she jumped overboard. Onlookers had to scramble to make sure she didn't drown. Kotze alleges producers didn't take the incident seriously, which left him "traumatized," and just kept filming. In another dangerous incident, he says producers staged a fire in the ship's kitchen.
The Career Impact
His portrayal on the series got him "blacklisted" by the yachting industry, according to the lawsuit. He says the show highlighted all his minor mistakes and none of his competent work, making him look like a "clumsy, unserious deckhand."
He also alleges that because he's South African, he was paid less than American crewmembers. When he brought up these issues, the show "engaged in a cover-up and retaliation campaign to silence and discredit him," the lawsuit states.
Kotze now suffers from diagnosed PTSD, anxiety, and depression following the experience.
The Legal Claims
He's suing for sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, defamation, privacy and image rights, emotional distress, negligence, and fraud. He also cites the Take it Down Act, which typically targets deepfakes and non-consensual intimate images. He's demanding that romantic or sexual clips of him be deleted.
Why He Waited Over a Decade
Kotze says he was too traumatized to act sooner. He only realized the full extent of the "lies" after reading a Business Insider investigation about abuse faced by reality TV cast members. The show "tried to make him think everything was normal," he added.
The Reality TV Problem
This isn't the first lawsuit against reality TV for exploitation and manipulation. "Love is Blind" faced a class-action lawsuit. "Real Housewives of Atlanta" star Brit Eady sued Bravo over an explicit photo incident. Reality shows keep getting sued for treating cast members poorly.
Kotze was 23 years old when he joined "Below Deck." He thought it was a documentary that would help his yachting career. Instead, he claims producers manipulated him into fake romance storylines, pressured him to drink, put him in dangerous situations like staged fires, and edited footage to make him look incompetent and obsessed.
A woman jumped overboard after producers stirred up drama and they just kept filming. That's what Kotze alleges. If true, that's prioritizing content over safety. That's treating cast members as disposable entertainment rather than real people.
Now Kotze says he's blacklisted from the yachting industry, suffering from PTSD, anxiety, and depression. The career he joined reality TV to advance is dead because of how the show portrayed him. He wants $850 million including $123 million in lost earnings as a yacht captain.
The lawsuit will play out in court. Whether his lawsuit succeeds or not, it's another data point in reality TV's exploitation problem.
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