Below Deck Down Under‘s Ellie Dubaich weighed in on Joe Bradley getting caught up in another love triangle with Kizzi Kitchener and Victoria SanJuan.
“I did watch. It was a bit of a tough watch, because I had been on the receiving end of that,” Ellie exclusively told Us Weekly. “I know how he is. He does lead women on, which we’ve seen him doing with Victoria. He is like, ‘I want nothing to do with you, but my mom would love you. I’ve never felt this way before and you’re special, but why would you think I wanted to have anything to do with you?’”
Ellie claimed Joe put her through “a lot of mind games.”
“Victoria did seem to get a little bit hurt and it was not right — especially because of all the things she was dealing with,” she noted. “So I hope that Joe has learned from that and I hope that he will grow in the future.”
Before joining season 4 of Below Deck Down Under, Ellie originally appeared on season 9 of Below Deck Mediterranean and formed a connection with Joe, which led to a love triangle with Bri Muller.
“I don’t wish bad on anybody, but I think [Joe’s newest drama] did redeem me a little bit, and it did show the fact that it wasn’t all me,” she explained. “He was playing with my head and he was playing with Bri’s head as well. But he was doing that in private. We never really heard the conversations he was having with the other girl. So then to us, it seemed like, ‘Oh, this girl is trying to come for this guy because I like him.’”
She continued: “That’s where our conflict began. Like, ‘Are you doing this just to get at me? Are you doing this to compete with me?’ We started taking it personally but we didn’t really realize that it was too late. It was Joe all along messing with us both.”
Joe, for his part, joked to Us in November 2025 that he learned “absolutely” nothing from his first public love triangle.
“They understand my message. My message is I’m single, and if you want to have a bit of fun and give me the same energy that it just gets a bit chaotic,” he added, explaining where he stood with Bri and Ellie. “But I’m your friend at the end of the day, so I’ve still got contact with Elena and I am still in contact with Bri.”
Joe said that he, Brie and Ellie were “friends,” explaining, “We’re young and we’re in a closed environment. It’s going to happen. But I’ve got contact with everyone and I’ve got no malicious intentions.”
While speaking with Us, Ellie confirmed she “made up” with Bri after their season of the show. Her focus now is doing better — especially now that she’s back on TV screens with Below Deck Down Under.
“I hope that this is a little bit different, because I did get called a pick-me last season … and I thought to myself, ‘Am I?’” she told Us. “Am I looking for validation from men? And that kind of was true at the time. So that was another thing that I reflected on and I improved.”
Below Deck Down Under airs on Bravo Mondays at 8 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.
