Where Is the Below Deck Med Season 11 Cast Now? Relationships and Life After Filming
Below Deck Mediterranean Season 11 ends with the Akira One crew leaving Croatia after one of the most fractured charter seasons in recent memory. Nathan Gallagher and Joe Bradley finish their final day knowing their friendship will probably never return to what it once was, Kat Johnston finally walks away from Cooper Dawson, and Gen…
Below Deck Mediterranean Season 11 ends with the Akira One crew leaving Croatia after one of the most fractured charter seasons in recent memory. Nathan Gallagher and Joe Bradley finish their final day knowing their friendship will probably never return to what it once was, Kat Johnston finally walks away from Cooper Dawson, and Gen Lillie leaves after a season that forced her to confront some uncomfortable truths about herself.
The finale gives viewers brief glimpses of life after filming, but much more has happened since the cameras stopped rolling. Aesha Scott is now married, Kayley Smith returned to yachting and later made plans for another international move, Kat began preparing for life in London, and Bravo has already confirmed that Captain Sandy Yawn and Aesha will return for Below Deck Med Season 12. Other Season 11 relationships, particularly those involving Joy Lefaucheur, Cooper and Luke Brumer, remain more complicated.
Captain Sandy and Aesha Scott Are Already Confirmed for Season 12
Captain Sandy’s future with Below Deck Mediterranean is already clear. Bravo has confirmed that she will return to lead Season 12, which is expected to air in 2027. The new season will also feature a crossover charter with members of Summer House, although Bravo has not announced the complete Below Deck Med crew yet.
Aesha Scott is also officially returning as chief stew. Her Season 11 storyline repeatedly revolved around preparing for her wedding while trying to manage one of the youngest interior teams she had led, and that wedding has since happened.
Aesha married longtime partner Scott Dobson in New Zealand on March 7, 2026. She later described married life as feeling different in a positive way and has continued speaking openly about how much she enjoys building a life with Scott.
That makes Sandy and Aesha the only Season 11 crew members Bravo has officially confirmed for Season 12 so far. Any other returning-cast reports should still be treated as filming speculation until Bravo releases the complete lineup.
Kat and Cooper Are Over, While Kat Is Building a New Life in London
Kat Johnston and Cooper Dawson do not stay together after Season 11. Their relationship had already reached its breaking point by the finale, when Kat decided she would not continue with their planned post-season trip after finally accepting that Cooper did not want the same kind of relationship she did.
Their contact faded after filming as well. Kat revealed that she and Cooper traveled home on the same flight and saw each other a few times afterward, but communication became less frequent until they stopped talking entirely. By late August, Kat said they were no longer even maintaining a friendship.
Kat has instead remained close with some of the women from the crew. She described Kayley as one of her best friends and said they were still extremely close after filming, while she also continued talking with Gen despite the difficult moments they experienced on the yacht.
Professionally, Kat has stepped away from full-time yachting for the moment. She returned home to Nova Scotia after filming and revealed plans to move to London, where she hopes to establish more of a permanent home base while remaining open to temporary yacht contracts in the future.
What Happened With Joy, Luke and Cooper After Filming?
Chef Joy Lefaucheur leaves Season 11 with one of the messiest unresolved relationship stories. Luke returns to Dubrovnik during the finale specifically to surprise her, and Joy is clearly happy to see him even after everything that happened earlier in the season.
That reunion does not appear to have turned into a publicly confirmed relationship. Bravo’s most recent relationship update says Luke has not confirmed that he is currently dating anyone. He has continued working in yachting and as a personal trainer since leaving the Akira One.
Joy’s post-season story became more complicated when she was later linked to Cooper. Filming sightings from Corfu and social-media activity fueled speculation that the two became close after Season 11, particularly after Kat appeared to fall out with both of them. A photo circulated online that appeared to show Joy and Cooper holding hands, but neither has publicly confirmed an official relationship.
For that reason, Joy and Cooper should still be described as rumored, not confirmed, to be dating. The speculation is especially interesting because there was almost no romantic Joy-Cooper storyline during Season 11 itself, when Joy’s attention was focused largely on Luke and Cooper was involved with Kat.
Bravo has also not officially confirmed Joy or Cooper for Season 12. Reports from filming have linked both to the production, but the network’s announced returning crew currently consists only of Captain Sandy and Aesha.
Gen Lillie Is Still Yachting and Says She Would Do the Show Again
Gen Lillie’s finale montage shows her traveling after Season 11, but she did not leave the yachting industry behind. In a post-season interview, Gen revealed that she was already working aboard another yacht and expected to continue yachting until she eventually decided to settle on land.
She has also been surprisingly open about how differently she views her Season 11 behavior now. Gen said she was not in a particularly good headspace when the season was filmed and that watching herself back helped her recognize areas of her life she needed to work on.
Her relationship with Luke appears completely finished. Gen said Luke had blocked her on Instagram while she had blocked his phone number, leaving little indication that either was interested in rebuilding any kind of relationship.
Despite the difficult season, Gen has not ruled out returning to Below Deck Med. She said she would do another season and believes the experience would be very different because she is now calmer and in a better place personally.
Her friendship with Kat also survived their Season 11 clashes. Kat said after filming that the two still talked frequently, even though Kat remained much closer to Kayley.
Kayley Returned to Yachting and She and Joe Are Just Friends
Kayley Smith emerged from Season 11 with one of the stronger professional trajectories in the interior department. After temporarily serving as acting chief stew on Akira One, she returned to yachting and quickly found herself placed in another leadership role.
Kayley revealed that she joined another approximately 50-meter yacht as second stew, only for staffing changes to push her into the chief stew position. She described the experience as difficult but valuable, giving her another opportunity to prove that the leadership responsibility she received under Aesha was not a one-off.
Her boatmance with Joe Bradley did not become a serious relationship. Kayley said the two are friends and continue checking in on each other’s lives, describing their Season 11 connection as something built on friendship and clear communication rather than expectations of a long-term romance.
Kayley also remained very close to Kat and Joy after filming. She said those friendships were among the most valuable things she took away from the show.
Away from yachting, she continued traveling and revealed plans to move to Niseko, Japan, for the ski season, where she expected to work in a small bar.
Joe Bradley Wants to Move Up, but His Season 12 Role Is Not Official
Joe ends Season 11 by handing his acting-bosun stripes back to Captain Sandy, a moment that makes his ambition obvious. Sandy understands that he wants the senior position, and his stint filling in for Nathan gave him genuine experience running the deck team.
His personal life after filming appears quieter than his earlier Below Deck seasons. Kayley confirmed that their romance became a friendship, while the finale’s flash-forward shows Joe spending time caring for his mother, whom he repeatedly described during the season as one of the most important people in his life.
Joe and Nathan did not repair their friendship after filming. Bravo reported earlier in the season that the former best friends were no longer in regular contact, and the finale makes clear that their peaceful goodbye is closure rather than a reconciliation.
Filming sightings have fueled rumors that Joe may return for Season 12 in a more senior role, but Bravo has not confirmed him as part of the Season 12 crew. Until the network releases the full cast, Joe becoming the next bosun should remain described as speculation rather than fact.
Nathan Gallagher Will Not Return to Bravo
Nathan’s finale update focuses on fatherhood, with his son Kayden becoming the center of the life he built away from the yacht. Season 11 repeatedly shows how much his priorities changed after becoming a father, and that shift also contributed to the collapse of his friendship with Joe.
His situation after filming has changed substantially, however. Following legal developments in Australia in September 2026, Bravo publicly stated that it does not plan to work with Nathan again.
That means Nathan will not be part of Below Deck Med Season 12 or another future Bravo season under the network’s current position. His Season 11 episodes remained intact because the season had already been filmed before those later developments.
For FilmiFeed, the legal details are better handled in the separate Nathan Gallagher explainer rather than repeated extensively here. For this cast-status article, the most important current point is simply that Nathan’s Below Deck career is over unless Bravo changes its publicly stated position.
Max Salvador’s Father Is Safe, While Massi Remains in Yachting
Max Salvador’s Season 11 return lasts only one charter before he leaves the yacht to help his father in Tunisia. Episode 14 later confirms that Max successfully reached him, bringing some resolution to one of the season’s strangest departures.
Max subsequently said that both he and his father were okay. Bravo also reported that he continued promoting yachting experiences on the French Riviera after the trip, while earlier in 2026 he had discussed building a hypnosis business in Bali.
His Season 10 relationship with Cathy Skinner has not resumed. The former couple said earlier in 2026 that they remained friendly but were no longer together.
Massi Scarcia, who replaces Max late in Season 11, entered the show with more than a decade of experience as a deckhand, bosun and captain. Bravo has not published a detailed post-season relationship or career update for him yet, but his professional background makes it unsurprising that he remains closely associated with the yachting industry.
His crush on Joy also appears to have gone nowhere during Season 11. Joy appreciated Massi, but Luke remained the person occupying most of her romantic attention by the finale.
Who Is Returning for Below Deck Med Season 12?
As of now, Bravo has officially confirmed only Captain Sandy Yawn and Aesha Scott as returning members of the Below Deck Mediterranean Season 12 crew. The season is expected in 2027 and will include a crossover charter featuring several Summer House stars.
Joe, Joy, Cooper and other Season 11 personalities have been connected to Season 12 through filming reports and fan sightings, but Bravo has not yet confirmed their positions. That distinction matters because leaked filming information can identify someone near production without establishing exactly what role they will have when the season airs.
Season 11 therefore ends with surprisingly few relationships intact, but several friendships and careers moving forward. Aesha enters Season 12 as a newlywed chief stew, Kat leaves Cooper behind and begins building a life in London, Kayley turns her temporary promotion into more leadership experience, Gen continues working on yachts, and Joe remains openly interested in climbing the deck hierarchy.
The Akira One crew may have left Croatia together, but their lives after filming quickly moved in very different directions.
