During Season 2 of Below Deck Down Under, stewardess Laura Bileskalne was criticized for spending too much time in the bathroom. Chief Stew Aesha Scott attributed Laura’s constant tardiness to her dawdling over her appearance in an effort to avoid work.
But now Laura has revealed that she was actually having a miscarriage at the time – which Aesha knew about. And she’s not happy with the way she was portrayed while she was going through such a major life event.
Saying it was “finally time to talk about it,” she spoke on an episode of the Miss Understood podcast with Rachel Uchitel on November 6. “I was not sure I wanted to talk about it,” she said, “but I found out I was pregnant on the second day of the show.”
An unplanned pregnancy
The Latvian native was stunned to discover she was pregnant. “I was in shock,” she shared. “I thought I had a UTI and I had antibiotics, but they didn’t help. [When] I spoke with the nurse on the show, she gave me a test.”
During filming, cast members are not supposed to talk to each other off-camera. But Laura realized she needed to speak privately with Aesha.
“I told her what was happening,” Laura said. “I thought she would be the one who can support me the most.” Laura preferred to keep her condition private and not let it be a storyline on the show.
Later, when she saw the way her frequent bathroom breaks were portrayed, she was surprised. She had explained everything to Aesha.
“That was really hurtful,” Laura confessed. “They knew what was happening. And production knew because I went to the hospital twice.”
A painful miscarriage
She had, in fact, scheduled an appointment to have an abortion between charters, but suffered a miscarriage before the procedure could take place.
“We were still on charter on Monday,” she said, “and that morning I woke up with pain I cannot explain. I was bleeding extensively and the bathroom was the only safe place I could be.”
She did go to the hospital, but the wait to see a doctor was so long she decided just to go back to the boat. She later saw a doctor who confirmed she had suffered a miscarriage.
None of the crew knew what Laura was experiencing other than Aesha and producers. “I asked them from the beginning,” she said, “if this could be private, and they straight away said yes. They never asked me [to put it on the show].”
Season 2 of Down Under aired in the summer of 2023. The show made headlines after crew member Luke Jones was fired for drunkenly crawling naked into stew Margot Sisson’s bed while she was sleeping. Laura was also dismissed for vocally supporting Luke, saying she wished he’d crawled into her bed naked. She’d have “welcomed him.” In addition, Laura was accused of sexually harassing deckhand Adam Kodra.
TELL US – DOES LAURA’S EXPERIENCE CHANGE YOUR OPINION OF HER? SHOULD SHE HAVE BEEN ON BEDREST RATHER THAN WORKING?
