FBOY Island Australia 2023 finalist Vernon Lyon has dropped a bunch of behind-the-scenes bombshells from his time on the Binge reality dating series.
For those late to the FBOY Island party, Vernon (whose real name is actually Brodie) joined the show as an intruder and closeted “FBoy”. However, he quickly won over Molly O’Halloran before it was exposed he’d allegedly dumped his girlfriend, Brogen Laura, to go on the show.
He’s since cleared up WTF their relationship status was at the time he appeared on the show in episode 305 of the So Dramatic! podcast.
Now, in episode 306 of the pod, he’s given us some insight into the drama that was cut from FBOY Island‘s final edit.
Namely, a number of fights that were left on the cutting room floor!
On the show, we saw Justin McNairn ark up to Nico Marshall AND Benny Marishta.
There was also that EPIC stoush between Cory Brown and Darcy Looker over their romances with Ziara Rae.
However, Vernon says he also got into a screaming match with Sean Wepener (who you may also remember from Heartbreak Island Australia).
“Sean threw me under the bus,” the tradie explained. “He was like, ‘If I was you, Molly, I wouldn’t pick him’.
“I just went off and was like, ‘Well, why are you here? Tell me why you don’t like me. Like, can you tell me what I’ve done wrong?’ And he wouldn’t, so I got pretty fed up.
“I was kind of screaming at him, saying, ‘Stop being a coward’,” Vernon added.
He also alleged that the male entertainer “slut-shamed Molly” for “kissing all [the] guys”. However, he admits that “Sean’s not a bad person”.
“He’s [just] not my type of person.” Fair enough!
Was the FBOY Island cast aware of Justin McNairn’s history with domestic violence?
In June, So Dramatic! reported that Justin, who was revealed as a “Nice Guy” on the show, had “only recently finished court proceedings for being physically abusive” towards his blogger ex, Triinu Liis, in Estonia.
Binge later said that production only became aware of this during filming.
However, Vernon said the cast was none the wiser.
“I didn’t even know that he was married once before,” he admitted, before recalling several times his co-star “snapped” on set.
“There’s a couple times he was talking to Sophie [Blackley], and something [went] wrong, and he just snaps.”
According to Vernon, the “main” instance was when the boys exposed Justin for saying he didn’t find any of the leading ladies attractive.
“Sophie said something and he snapped at Sophie [but] I don’t think they filmed it,” he said. “On the third last night or something, there was a moment there. He snapped at Sophie again.”
However, he feels that Sophie was too blinded by his charm to recognise the poor behaviour.
“He got a better edit than what he should have,” Vernon added, noting that “none of the guys liked him at the end”.
“I don’t support him. Once I heard about that domestic violence thing… I don’t support him at all.” We’re glad to hear…
Who decides whether the contestants are ‘Nice Guys’ or ‘FBoys’?
It’s the question on everybody’s mind, and, according to Vernon, it’s up to the applicant what category they fall into.
“[When applying] I put ‘FBoy’, and then on the phone [they asked], ‘What do you want to do?'” he explained.
Apparently, the casting directors said if he wanted to genuinely find love, he should list himself as a “Nice Guy” and split the $50,000 prize money if he won.
“But if you don’t want to find a girl, why don’t you take the $50k [for yourself as an ‘FBoy’]?” they’d said to him.
He added: “It’s all self-proclaimed. So it’s just whatever you put down.”
What was the filming schedule like for FBOY Island Australia?
According to Vernon, filming the show “was so much fun”, despite the intense filming schedule.
“It was a lot of filming. They do the eliminations and the next day, I think it’s the mixer,” he explained. “So they’ll film the mixer, and then they’ll film the dates, and then there’ll be elimination.
“It was like a three-day roster. Every three days they’d do that kind of sequence.”
“It was pretty full-on.”
He went on to say that the producers “did a great job” with coordinating all of the guys.
“Boys aren’t very good with coordination. So they control us and have us all doing a certain thing, trying to get ready and all that.”
What was host Abbie Chatfield like behind the scenes of FBOY Island Australia?
While fans have been clamouring for host Abbie Chatfield‘s quick quips, Vernon wasn’t much of a fan.
“Personally, I didn’t like her,” he said. “She likes the sound of her own voice and it’s her word or nothing.”
Apparently, she would say a joke on camera but “no one would laugh”.
“Then we’d have to re[shoot] and she’d be like, ‘Come on, joke’. So, someone made a joke about it and was like, ‘Well, maybe say something funny’, and she got very sad about that.”
Vernon also believes if it was a male host making Abbie’s remarks towards women, it’d be a different story.
“She was roasting us all day, every day, saying how we’re all douchebags and we all dress like FBoys.” But, uh, where is the lie?
Want even more goss? Listen to the So Dramatic! podcast with Megan Pustetto below!
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