2nd Stew Kyle Viljoen may just be the ultimate villain of Below Deck Mediterranean Season 8. From the moment he arrived, Kyle has done nothing but stir up drama onboard. In fact, Kyle’s behavior got so out of hand that Captain Sandy Yawn had to give him a warning. While this certainly caused Kyle to reevaluate his actions, he nonetheless continued to be problematic.
Kyle was also a stew during Below Deck Med Season 7, where he often involved himself in conflict as well. Nonetheless, Kyle has reached new lows during Season 8, where many viewers have labeled him as extremely toxic. From being incredibly fake to bullying fellow crew members, here is everything that makes Kyle Viljoen so toxic.
Kyle Is As Fake As They Come
At the beginning of Season 8, Kyle and 3rd Stew Natalya Scudder started off on good terms. Or at least Natalya thought so. What Natalya didn’t realize, was that Kyle had been texting Chief Stew Tumi Mhlongo behind her back. Natalya and Tumi butted heads prior to Kyle’s arrival, and the latter informed Kyle about their drama via text. In return, Kyle was eager to smack talk Natalya to Tumi and told her to watch out for her.
After arriving, however, Kyle put on a fake smile and pretended to be besties with Natalya yet again. In fact, Kyle even began talking down on Tumi to Natalya, who was still having issues with her. Eventually, Tumi began to realize that Kyle was two faced, and that he was in the middle of much of the boat’s drama. Kyle went behind both Natalya and Tumi’s backs, while pretending to be loyal to each of them. Very shady Kyle.
Kyle and Natalya eventually started having disagreements, one of which pushed Kyle over the edge. When Natalya called out Kyle for being unreasonable with Deckhand Max Salvador, he went ballistic. Kyle began screaming at Natalya, and claimed that their friendship was never real in front of the rest of the crew. The fight revealed Kyle’s true colors, and proved that he was never really loyal to Natalya, despite acting like her best friend at times.
Kyle Is a Borderline Bully
In addition to being fake, Kyle has already bullied several of his fellow crew members on Below Deck Med Season 8. Natalya is one of Kyle’s biggest victims, especially after he relentlessly berated her in front of everyone. This was incredibly uncalled for, and it was clear that Kyle’s main objective was to embarrass Natalya and make her feel bad.
Kyle has also treated 4th Stew Jessika Asai rather poorly. After confiding in Tumi that Kyle made her feel like a green stew, Jessika quickly became a target of his. When Jessika tried to have a mature conversation with Kyle on the matter, he was unwilling to speak to her. To make things even worse, Kyle was flat out rude to Jessika and told her to get out of his way when she respectfully approached him.
The worst part of Kyle’s argument with Jessika was that he made it all about himself. Jessika had a right to be frustrated with Kyle, as it was evident that he really did make her feel like a green stew at times. Instead of apologizing, Kyle only continued to put Jessika down by making the issue about himself and claiming that he felt betrayed.
One of Kyle’s most ridiculous cat fights was with Max, over an issue merely caused by a language barrier. In a conversation about the LGBTQ+ community, Kyle got frustrated when Max falsely claimed to be a member of the community. However, it was pretty clear that what Max was really trying to say, was that he was an ally and supporter of the community. However, due to French being his first language, Max got tripped up on the words.
While Kyle should have understood that Max meant well, he nonetheless took the opportunity to go off on him. Kyle and Max had not interacted much prior to this, so it was completely inappropriate of Kyle to go off on him the way that he did. As Captain Sandy eventually pointed out, Kyle is the common denominator for trouble on the yacht. Not only is Kyle a fake friend, but he is also a straight up bully at times.
TELL US – WHAT DO YOU THINK IS KYLE’S MOST TOXIC TRAIT? WOULD YOU WANT TO SEE KYLE RETURN?
