Sailing Yacht's Gary King on His Hookup With Sydney Zaruba: "It Shouldn't Have Happened"

After what was definitely the wildest crew night in in the history of Below Deck, it was back to reality for Gary King and Sydney Zaruba in the March 15 episode of Below Deck Sailing Yacht. Gary was noticeably distant toward Sydney the next day after the two had ended that raucous evening by sleeping together in one of the guest cabins.

That didn't seem to be how Sydney thought things would be with the first mate following their hookup. "Gary and I haven't really talked since we slept in the same cabin together, but it's fine," she said in an interview during the episode. "I'm just very confused."

Gary explained his behavior toward Sydney during his appearance on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on March 15 (clip above). "Well, to be honest, I did say to her that it was just gonna be a one night stand, and that's how I kind of felt about it," he said. "So I didn't want to give her any more reason to feel involved."

When host Andy Cohen asked if Sydney felt the same way, he replied, "She did. I believe she did say yes. She said OK." When Andy seemed dubious about Gary's statement, the first mate said, referring to what was shown in the March 8 episode of Below Deck Sailing Yacht, "Wasn't it in the subtitles?"

Gary then expressed his hope to just move forward with Sydney after their hookup, especially since they would have to keep working together as first mate and deckhand, respectively, while the charter season continued. "I didn't want to lead her on. Sometimes things happen, and it happened. You know, I just had to get on through with it. You can't keep living in the past," Gary said. "It shouldn't have happened. I think we both know that. We both knew that then."

However, Gary's fellow WWHL guest, Below Deck Sailing Yacht's chief engineer Colin MacRae agreed when Andy asked, "Was Sydney the worst possible girl on board for Gary to hook up with?" Colin replied, "Yes, because of the department issue." (As Parsifal III's first mate, Gary is deckhand Sydney's direct manager.)

Colin Macrae Gets Honest About Gary King

Colin did say that it was "kinda smart" for Gary to not admit that he had stayed with Sydney in the guest cabin when chief stew Daisy Kelliher tried to get to the bottom of why the room was messy after the first group of charter guests left. "But I was a bit pissed off. I thought we had a bromance happening, and he didn't even tell me about it," Colin said. "That wasn't cool."

It looks like Gary now has two relationships he needs to work on.

Want more Below Deck Sailing Yacht? New episodes air every Monday at 9/8c or catch up on the Bravo app.

Watch a preview, below.

The Yachties Play a Naughty Game of Truth or Dare!