Joe Bradley from Below Deck didn’t want to be evil in “Love Triangle”

Below Deck Mediterranean‘S Joe Bradley is willing to take responsibility for the problems that have arisen from his love triangle with Ellie Dubaich And Bri Müller – but he does not bear all the blame.

“I could have played it a little differently. But of course it was not my intention to be disrespectful in any way,” Joe said exclusively We weekly about his personal relationships with Ellie and Bri. “And I don’t think I was disrespectful.”

Joe stressed that his work is always his priority, adding, “I communicate on a very serious and very professional level because I don’t want to disrupt my work. If this ruins my part of the work, I have to protect my position in both areas. I will not allow a woman or a man to disrupt my work ethic.”

Season 9 began with Joe and Ellie showing interest in each other. The senior deckhand also flirted with Bri and later made out with her, which caused problems with the interior team. Although Ellie has blamed Joe since filming wrapped, he sees the situation differently.

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“I don’t think I’m entirely to blame. No way. Was I the one who was stalking them and talking to them? Of course. But I’m just checking. We’re still at the very beginning,” he explained. “I need to know who you are. I’m just having a conversation. It’s flirting. And where I come from (in) Liverpool, the flirting game is up here. Maybe (Ellie) isn’t used to an intense environment, but I disagree.”

Joe’s colleague as deckhand Nathan Gallagher During the joint interview he stood on his side and said Us“I disagree with that, too. The reason I’m not going to say Joe is to blame is because Bri and Ellie had a conversation in the laundry room where they were able to tell each other that they both like Joe and that could have potentially ruled something out.”

Nathan asked why Bri and Ellie weren’t more honest about who they liked on the boat.

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“Joe and I had a conversation. He told me he was interested in Ellie when we first met. I told him I was interested in Ellie. Gael (Cameron) and that was set in stone,” he noted. “So we made our intentions clear to each other and there was no love triangle in our situation. But if the girls had had that conversation, it might have gone differently.”

Last month, Ellie opened up to Us about why she thought Joe was responsible for the drama.

“Yeah, one hundred percent (he’s to blame),” Ellie claimed. “After a while, I realized that maybe it was Joe taking advantage of both sides. Because even when I only watched episode 2, where he was so vacillating, I didn’t really realize the extent to which he was pulling the wool over her eyes.”

The second stew added, “Because all the stories that came to mind were more like, ‘Oh, Bri is interested in Joe. He’s not really interested in her. He wants you.’ It was more like, ‘Oh, she threw herself at him.’ But then I realized that maybe he was the one who instigated the whole thing, too.”

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However, according to Joe, the problems between Ellie and Bri went beyond their mutual interest in him. In particular, he pointed out that they argued about Ellie telling Bri what to do later in the season, which led to even more tension between the two.

“You have to understand that Ellie and Bri obviously clash and I’m the icing on the cake. Unfortunately, they clash because their personalities don’t mesh and that has nothing to do with me,” he explained. “I’m just the guy they’re interested in, unfortunately. But if I’d known that, I could have played it very differently. But we’re on a yacht and at the end of the day, sailing is sailing here. … I’m not doing it with malicious intent.”

Below Deck Mediterranean Season 9 airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on Bravo. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.