Season 9 of Below Deck Mediterranean may have ended on Sept. 23, but it turns out there's more to the story of Joe Bradley and Elena "Ellie" Dubaich's relationship.
On the subsequent episode of the Below Deck Mediterranean After Show, Joe revealed that he was "still friends" with Ellie once filming wrapped despite all of the drama they were involved in with Bri Muller during the season.
As a result, Joe and Ellie went on to meet up after Season 9 — but things quickly went down hill from there.
"When he stayed at my place last time we spoke, he bought me flowers, he wrote a nice card. I was like, 'Oh my God, this is so sweet. OK, this is cute,'" Ellie recalled. "So, I offered him a massage. I was offering him a professional treatment — I was a masseuse on a cruise ship — [and] he panicked so much."
"She said, 'Don't be scared, it's only a massage,'" Joe chimed in to note. "I said, 'But I don't want to get a massage from ya.' That's just how it is ... Maybe she's taken that hard? I don't want to think that way, but unfortunately I think that's the case."
Joe was also dealing with a family emergency, but Ellie didn't believe him, and this led to a fight. What's more, he wasn't happy with the way Ellie was apparently talking about Bri during their time together in Florida. As he put it, "When we did meet up with each other in Florida, [Ellie] was badmouthing Bri like she was a rat, like she was nothing on earth. And I didn't like that."
His theory for Ellie's unresolved animosity toward Bri? "She's just not happy I'm still friends with Bri."
Joe Bradley met up with Bri Muller after Season 9, upsetting Ellie Dubaich
Fast-forward to a little while after that, and Joe decided to meet up with Bri in Los Angeles (and yes, they did share a kiss while together — "but that's it!" Joe insisted).
Recalled Ellie, "Mind you, he told me he could never post a picture with me because people talk, never let me post the flowers he bought me because he didn't want people to talk. Next thing I know, he's in LA with Bri posting 15 stories with Bri, rubbing it in my face."
"She sees that I meet up with Bri, and then Bri was blocked," Joe said. "I was like, 'Jesus am I blocked?' and then I see I'm blocked."
Ellie, however, felt justified in her decision to block Joe. As she explained, "I'm sorry, you stayed at my place, and you don't even have the respect to post one picture with me to say 'thank you,' but you go to LA and post all these stories with Bri right to my face?"
Where do Ellie Dubaich and Joe Bradley stand today?
Despite their post-Season 9 drama, Ellie and Joe are in a better place today. As she told The Daily Dish in a September interview, "Our friendship hit a bit of a roadblock in the meanwhile, but he’s reached out and offered a heartfelt apology for being immature and not realizing how his behavior was affecting others which was big of him."
"I’ve accepted it and I’m happy to move forward as a friend," Ellie added. "I have no animosity towards him."
Are Ellie Dubaich and Bri Muller friends after Season 9?
According to Ellie, she and Bri are in better shape today than they were in the immediate aftermath of Below Deck Med Season 9. "I reached out to Bri and apologized around episode 2 or 3," Ellie exclusively told The Daily Dish in September. "Many mistakenly assumed my apology was made only after I received public backlash and that was simply not the case. Watching it back I realized that Joe actually was leading her on and it hadn’t been her throwing herself at him as to compete with me. If I had known that, I would have not reacted the way I did."
Today, "Bri and I are open to catching up when she’s back in town and mending fences," Ellie concluded.
Hear more from the yachties in the above Below Deck Med After Show clip.
