Below Deck’s Captain Lee Weighs In on Captain Kerry Firing Jared, Says He Would Have Done It ‘Earlier’

Captain Lee Rosbach showed his support for Captain Kerry Titheradge‘s decision to remove Jared Woodin from the boat.

During a March episode of his “Salty With Captain Lee” podcast, Lee and his cohost, Sam DeCavalcanti, discussed Jared and Cat Baugh‘s onscreen departure.

“I don’t fault Kerry for that,” Lee said, referring to Kerry asking Jared to step down after several issues that stemmed from the bosun drinking on crew nights out. Cat, for her part, asked to leave after receiving an alarming phone call from a friend.

Lee reflected on his own experiences on Below Deck with the deck team, adding, “If this was among a long list of transgressions that this guy committed, I probably would have gotten rid of him earlier than that.”

Kerry let Jared go during the March 18 episode of the hit Bravo series. The captain also promoted Ben Willoughby, who appeared on a past season of Below Deck before returning originally as a lead deckhand.

“Initially, I think [I was] very much [surprised to not be bosun] because between the two seasons, I’d actually worked as a bosun on other vessels, which was great. I had very much just moved into that role very easily,” Ben exclusively told Us Weekly last month. “So, when I was asked to come back and I was actually taking a step down back to the lead deckhand, I was like, ‘Damn, I’ve got to bite my tongue a bit here and see what kind of circus this person’s running.’”

Ben reflected on his issues with Jared throughout season 11 as well, adding, “I think it was more of a competition between us two. I think that’s how Jared kind of took it because he could have used me to his advantage. I know the boat, I know how it works very successfully. But I think he was just trying to use what we call two-stripe authority to influence that on me. I did as much as I could to bite my tongue, but I was very much ready to walk off that boat because I knew we were destined to fail. And evidently here we are.”

Ben noted that an added benefit of Jared being bosun first was teaching him what to avoid.

“I was very pleased that he had the first run at it and I could sort of see what was going on,” he admitted to Us. “I’m glad that he took the first run at it, so I could see how to do it and what Kerry was like and where he demanded things. Especially in the docking situations … I could tell that Jared was stumbling and fumbling. So I knew that that’s where I just had to be on my A-game.”

Meanwhile, Lee’s insight on Kerry’s decision comes after his own shocking exit. Us broke the news in February 2023 that Lee would no longer appear on Below Deck after a decade-long run. He has since booked a new project as the host of an Oxygen true crime series titled Deadly Waters.

Kerry took over during season 11 of Below Deck after previously being introduced to viewers on Below Deck Adventure, which aired in early 2023.

Below Deck season 11 airs on Bravo Mondays at 9 p.m. ET. New episodes stream the next day on Peacock.