Below Deck Down Under season 2 replacement deck leader Joao Franco has a reputation as a womanizer according to Chief Stewardess Aesha Scott and Chef Tzarina Mace-Ralph. He started building his status as a ladies’ man while on Below Deck Med season 3. His first season he started a love triangle with the two stewardesses. However, Joao claims his last two long-term ex girlfriends both cheated on him, before the girl he’s now dating. On, BDDU season 2 previews show the second officer kissing stewardess Margot Sisson. So, what’s the story behind Joao’s ex girlfriends and breakups?
Joao joined superyacht Northern Sun midway through the charter season filming in Cairns, Australia, after Bosun Luke Jones got fired for sexually inappropriate conduct after a drunken crew night out. Joao told Chef Tzarina he was currently single after his previous fiancée allegedly cheated on him. Chef Tzarina flirted with Joao incessantly as soon as he joined the crew, despite her knowing he screwed over and led on her good friend who he had a romantic relationship with. Joao told Tzarina he was single due to trust issues from his previous relationship.
Joao and Kasey flirting on Below Deck Med season 3 when he was dating Brooke (Bravo).
Joao’s Ex Girlfriends And Breakups Before Below Deck Down Under Season 2 Explained
Kasey and Joao taking a selfie and flirting (Bravo).
“Every girlfriend I have had has cheated on me. I don’t want serious feelings, because I don’t want to get hurt. I don’t want to get hurt by anyone,” Joao said midway through Below Deck Med season 3.
Throughout the season he toyed with stewardesses Brooke Laughton and Kasey Cohen. On one crew night out he flirted relentlessly with Kasey and told her he had decided with of the girls he wanted to pursue. When Kasey left, Joao kissed Brooke and started a boatmance with her. That didn’t stop him from hitting on and getting flirty with Kasey the rest of the season.
“I genuinely cannot answer the question because they are genuinely completely different. I just don’t know what I want,” Joao said during season 3.
Brooke and Joao spent a month in Zimbabwe together and then were together for five or six months after filming season 3. “Then it all went downhill” according to Brooke on the reunion. The broke things off after seeing how much he was flirting with Kasey behind his back.
Joao’s ex girlfriend Brooke on Below Deck Med season 3 (Bravo).
“Brooke and I threw ourselves in the deep end. I met her family, she met mine. She came to Zimbabwe, and we worked so well together, we really did,” Joao said to Bravo after the reunion in early 2019. “Things seemed perfect, but I found out she cheated on me… I really, really loved her. I wanted to make it work, even so, but she didn’t want to, so what can I do?”
Joao said he quit his dream job to be with Brooke, allegedly upon her request, but found out she had been cheating on him while they were in a long-distance relationship.
During the time Joao was in NYC for the season 3 reunion, he met dental hygienist Michelle Dicu who helped whiten his teeth. On the season 3 reunion, Joao cried and claimed he was still madly in love with Brooke. She responded by telling him he needed to stop lying and be a man who takes accountability. While on Below Deck Med season 4 Joao said he was still single, but after filming he started a relationship with Michelle.
Joao and his ex fiancée Michelle when they first started dating (Instagram).
The two shared lots of picture of them as a couple enjoying life in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They got engaged, but in June 2021 Joao announced the marriage was off because they broke up after dating for over two years.
“As I am sure most of you have gathered, I am no longer engaged. I haven’t been for a long time and also haven’t felt the need to share it until I was ready. Firstly, I absolutely loved the bombshell of a lady I was with. She was nothing short of extraordinary and so crazy beautiful!!! She truly deserves the world,” Joao said of Michelle in an Instagram post.
Joao and Michelle while engaged (Instagram).
“Through the hardships of COVID, career paths and distance we didn’t make it through. I truly wish we could have and will never regret nor forget the love we had for each other. It is sad to be strangers after being so close but, it is what it is, isn’t it,” he added.
Joao with his current girlfriend Domi Tiesi (Instagram).
Joao then started dating his current girlfriend Domi Tiesi in June 2022, a month or so after filming Below Deck Down Under season 2. Fellow yachtie and German blonde bombshell Domi works with Joao on the superyacht he captains.
Girlfriend Domi and Joao work together on the same yachts (Instagram).
BDDU Season 2 Second Officer Joao Has Checkered Past Womanizing
BDDU season 2’s preview showing what looks like Joao kissing stewardess Margot (Bravo).
“I was engaged… I gave her many chances after catching her red-handed lying, bull [bleep],” Joao said to Chef Tzarina in BDDU season 2 about ex fiancée Michelle. “In the beginning yes, [she cheated]. And then she closed off from entirely… After my disengagement, I went in a very, very dark place. Because of giving someone all of my vulnerability, I feel like I could never go back to the place where I could just be so trusting.”
However, the women in and around his life tell a very different story than poor Joao getting cheated on by every girl he’s ever dated.
“Joao just [bleeped] over my friend big time. Lying, deceit, totally messing around,” Chef Tzarina said about a mystery girl Joao claims was a friend with benefits.
During Below Deck Med season 3, Joao shamelessly flirted with Kasey while in a boatmance with Brooke.
He was feeding both of them food, telling Brooke not to get upset from the flirting. Then proceeded to dance with Kasey and telling Kasey he wanted to visit her in NYC.
“I feel guilty that I was flirting with Kasey at that stage, but I didn’t ask for Kasey to get up. I didn’t ask for Brooke to sit down. But when I kissed Brooke it all made sense. But before then, nothing made sense,” Joao said during the season.
Joao claimed Brooke had a problem with him communicating with Kasey after filming the show, but Brooke says she didn’t even know they were talking. Apparently when Brooke and Joao had a fight he told Kasey he wanted to come visit her in New York.
“I was playing a game that even I didn’t know that I was playing,” Joao said during the season 3 reunion.
“She changed me from the start. She showed me part of something I’ve never had the privilege of seeing. A normal life, a normal family, a normal everything,” Joao said about his love for Brooke at the time.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens to Joao on BDDU season 2. It looks like he sinks deckhand Harry van Vliet‘s boatmance with Margot.
