Below Deck‘s Ashton Pienaar is celebrating six years of sobriety — and calling out the costars who questioned his decision to quit drinking.
Ashton took to Instagram on Tuesday, January 7, to share a video from the season 7 reunion, writing, “6 years ago my Below Deck castmates laughed at me when I said I quit drinking.” In the caption, Ashton elaborated on his personal journey in the years since the Bravo special aired.
“6 years sober today. This clip was the moment I said it out loud for the first time. People laughed,” he wrote. “Why? Because choosing sobriety can make others confront their own choices. And perhaps they thought I didn’t have it in me 🤷♂️.”
Ashton recalled having to block out the criticism.
“The point is, when you make a big choice, not everyone knows what to do with it,” he continued. “But looking back now … that moment was the start of everything real. Because it wasn’t about getting applause. It was about getting honest — and holding myself accountable.”
After deciding to get sober, Ashton saw big changes in his personal life, adding, “Since then, I’ve rebuilt my life piece by piece. My body. My business. My mindset. My relationships. All from a place I actually trust now.”
Ashton clarified that he had to put in the work.
“Sobriety didn’t magically make everything easy — but it gave me a shot at living on my terms. So yeah. 6 years,” he concluded. “Somehow — after all the mistakes, all the doubt, all the lessons — I’m still here. Here’s to the ones who said I could. And the ones who said I couldn’t. I needed both.”
Ashton previously appeared in season 6 and 7 of the hit Bravo series. He later made headlines for his altercation with chief stew Kate Chastain, which ended with him punching a window in a van. At the time, Kate revealed that she was worried about her safety during the crew night out.
“I was scared but also just in shock,” she explained to Decider in December 2019. “I was in a place where I could not have escaped if I wanted to. I played possum, just froze and held still. Why is [Ashton] so mad right now? Why is he punching windows? Why is everybody screaming stop the van? What’s he gonna do? What is happening? It all kinda happened really fast.”
Kate pointed out that her issues with the deck team continued throughout season 7. “I was working with illogical assholes. I don’t know what I could’ve done differently. I was outnumbered but also it was a very bizarre situation,” she added.
Ashton, for his part, offered an apology to Kate during the cast reunion following backlash. “I was completely drunk, I was out of my mind, I’m sorry for that,” he said in February 2020. “I hate the fact that everything has been spun the way it is. But you know what, I have to take responsibility for that because I’m the one that behaved the way I did.”
The former deckhand continued: “I’m making serious changes in my life because I’m not proud of the person I saw on camera that night. And I am extremely sorry. I have amazing relationships with all the women in my life. The way everything has turned out and the way everything has turned out in the real world now and the labels I’m being labeled with, I’m extremely ashamed of.”
The costars ultimately didn’t return for future seasons of Below Deck.
