Hannah Ferrier relishes being on sidelines of drama – and not at its centre – on The Real Love Boat

Hannah Ferrier reveals why she didn’t hesitate to jump on board The Real Love Boat and what she simply cannot allow to happen.

“Absolutely not!” Hannah Ferrier exclaims, before bursting into raucous laughter.

The Below Deck Mediterranean star may be both a veteran – and unabashed fan – of reality TV but that doesn’t mean she’s eager to see her 18-month-old daughter, Ava, eventually follow in her footsteps.

“It’s a no to reality TV and a no to working on super yachts,” she says.

“I am very much a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ sort of mum.”

And that applies to her wardrobe as well. Ferrier laughs that she quickly vetoed her stylist’s recent suggestion that she put away a short, flirty dress with flesh-baring cut-outs for Ava to one day wear.

“I wore it for New Year’s Eve a couple of years ago and it’s a beautiful piece,” she says.

“But there’s no way Ava is wearing it.”

Once a globetrotting and self-described “party girl”, Ferrier was forced to drop anchor when she was sacked from Below Deck Mediterranean in 2020. Not long after that, the pandemic hit.

“We fell pregnant with Ava in February and the world shutdown in April,” she recalls.

“So, it was this bizarre kind of thing where it was almost like the most amazing time to be pregnant as you weren’t really having FOMO [fear of missing out] because everyone was just staying inside.

Hannah Ferrier in the new reality TV series The Love Boat.

“I know a lot of people who struggled with the lockdowns because they felt like they weren’t accomplishing things.

“But nothing could make me more proud in my life than raising Ava. So, the fact that I actually got to just stop and concentrate just on that, and my business and my podcast, and there was no pressure to go anywhere or to do another show was actually really nice.”

That doesn’t mean the mother-of-one wasn’t itching to get back to work at sea. After all, it had never really been her choice to leave Below Deck. And the fans certainly didn’t want to see her go either.

Ferrier was sent packing when it was discovered she had brought valium on board the boat for filming without having declared the medication to her captain.

Ferrier has since revealed she had been secretly battling anxiety.

“I was ashamed of it,” she explains.

“And I was embarrassed about it. And I felt, back then, that it was a weakness.

“I’ve been through a lot in my life and in my childhood. And so my armour is going: ‘I’m strong’. So, when I had moments where I wasn’t strong and I couldn’t mentally control myself, I felt ashamed.”

As she’s gotten older, Ferrier says she’s found ways to cope with her anxiety rather than “trying to push it down or be embarrassed”.

And part of that is now being open about her condition in the hopes of reducing the stigma for others in the same boat.

Hannah Ferrier, Captain Paolo Arrigo, Darren McMullen and Daniel Doody on The Real Love Boat.

Upon reflection, Ferrier says her exit was “a powerful moment” for television, with many viewers sending her messages of solidarity, saying how it had helped them to know they weren’t alone in their own mental health struggles.

“I hid my anxiety for three seasons of filming Below Deck, which was really exhausting,” she says.

“Because it is a highly stressful, anxious, sleep-deprived, alcohol-induced kind of experience, if anxiety is ever going to come up, it’s filming a show like Below Deck.”

That being said, Ferrier has no regrets about anything that unfolded on the show, including that controversial exit. She’s not one of those reality TV stars who moans about being made to look bad, emphasising: “They can’t like edit you to say something you didn’t say”.

That’s why, when the opportunity to join Channel 10’s new dating series The Real Love Boat bobbed up, Ferrier didn’t hesitate to jump on board, even though it meant leaving her family at home in Sydney.

The series sees 12 singles wining and dining each other – with some help from a matchmaking Ferrier – on board a luxury liner cruising the Mediterranean.

A cocktail of beautiful people, romance and sun-drenched locations, Ferrier enthuses its TV escapism at its best.

Filming was also a great escape for travel-loving Ferrier herself.

“The first day that I landed in Barcelona, and I remember just walking around the streets going: “Oh the food! The culture! The language! All of those things that fed my soul for 10 years,” she reflects.

“It was such an amazing experience after sitting at home for such a long time.”

Daniel Doody and Hannah Ferrier.

Joining Ferrier on The Real Love Boat are host Darren McMullen and Studio 10 reporter Daniel Doody. And Ferrier laughs that her new crewmates are “a lot saner” than some of the people she made waves with on Below Deck.

“And it was like nice to not be working 22 hours a day and be a maid with a camera strapped to me,” she adds.

On The Real Love Boat, not only does Ferrier keep far more civilised hours but she relished being on the sidelines of the drama rather than at its centre for once. That doesn’t mean she’s in any way boring.

“I feel like, you know, you can still go in and be yourself, and have your own personality coming through, even though you’re not part of the drama,” she says.

“To be part of this amazing new show, where I could still be my cheeky self and poke a few bears was a lot of fun.”

Ferrier is a woman who knows how to give good reality TV. The reason for that is a mixture of natural instinct and a lot of years of experience watching shows such as the Real Housewives, Love Island and Bachelor in Paradise.

She now even has a podcast Dear Reality, You’re Effed, dedicated to analysing the genre.

“I’m such an addict,” she says.

“It was so great that I started my podcast, where I interview a lot of reality stars because, now when I am watching the Real Housewives, I can say to my husband: ‘Babe, I am working, can you take the baby out for a walk?’.”

Hannah Ferrier and Darren McMullen.

Unlike Ferrier, McMullen isn’t a big fan of TV dating shows.

“The only reality show I really watch is Below Deck because I love the yachting culture, I love boats and I love exotic destinations,” he says.

“So that was definitely something that appealed to me when getting the opportunity to host this and be on a yacht.

“Not only is this a dating show, so you have the love and the romance and the love triangles, but you also have these phenomenal destinations.

“And after we’ve all been locked up for two and a half years, hopefully people will get as much joy out of seeing these wonderful destinations as we did, and will start planning their next holiday.”

Being a Below Deck fan, McMullen was both “delighted and terrified” when he heard Ferrier would be on-board for the ride.

“Having watched every episode that Hannah was in, I knew that we would either love each other or hate each other,” he laughs.

“We got on like a house on fire and I was relieved about that because, judging by her Below Deck seasons, Hannah is not the sort of person you want to get on the wrong side of.”

The Real Love Boat, 7.30pm, Wednesday-Thursday, Ten

Originally published as Hannah Ferrier relishes being on sidelines of drama – and not at its centre – on The Real Love Boat