It wouldn't be TOWIE without a bit of drama, would it?
Off-screen drama plagued the TOWIE cast this week after NINE of the show's stars were booted off a flight to the UK via Madrid. The cast – starring old and new faces – had been filming scenes in the Dominican Republic for the launch of season 30.
It's been reported that a handful of the cast refused to wear masks and had been vaping on the flight to Madrid.
Mia Sully and fellow new recruits Pia Smith and Hannah Voyen were amongst those who were apparently asked to leave the plane, as well as show veteran James 'Diags' Bennewith, Dan Edgar and returning face Jordan Brook. The group were then detained upon their arrival in Madrid.
An insider slammed the cast's up in the air antics, telling the The Sun, "This lunatic behaviour brings shame on ITV and the entire TOWIE show."
In response to the incident, TOWIE veteran Saffron Lempriere has lashed out at her fellow cast mates, particularly Pia Smith, in a lengthy and now deleted Instagram Story. Luckily, we can sniff out TOWIE drama like a bloodhound here at Closer, so managed to fetch the screenshots just before they vanished.
In her lengthy rant, Saffron responded to one Instagram follower who blasted the star, saying, "Who do all you lot think you are?No different to anybody else even the new girl Pia [Smith] confirmed you all refused to wear masks on the flight...it's all over the press 🤣🤣🤣"
In response to the follower's mentioning of newbie Pia, Saffron came for the jugular, saying, "As for the name above, I told her to firmly shut up 24 hours before because it don't think when it speaks, but there we go certainly not my friend yes a new cast member with questionable respect and as for the person vaping please spend your time sending her messages all day".
Shots fired.
Prior to her scathing attack on Pia - an indication as to how season 30's drama might play out, no doubt – Saffron explained what she says really happened on that now infamous TOWIE flight.
She wrote, "Just to confirm and set the story straight, we had traveled from the Dominican via Madrid to London, as with all countries and airlines there are different rules. When we arrived in Madrid it was not brought to anybody's attention about wearing masks and the airport was a mixture of people wearing masks and not wearing masks.
"When we all began boarding the plane and it was made apparent this particular airline required masks, every single person who didn't have a mask in our team entered the plane with a mask either provided by our team of the airline who were reluctant to give the masks themselves which was unusual in itself.
"We were grounded for around half an hour before anything was made clear, then an announcement was made, some of the cast by now had fallen asleep after a long day of travelling to be woken to say masks were not over nose etc... Other passengers not from our group were being asked to wear there masks correctly.
"Then there was an announcement to say we wouldn't be departing as masks were not worn etc and the authorities would be coming to the plane.
"To be honest this was a scary experience for everyone ...
"People were picked out and asked to leave the plane. NOBODY WAS RUDE NOBODY REFUSED TO WEAR A MASK.
"I didn't have a mask I was provided one by our team and remained on the flight.
"We have just made an amazing two episodes in the Dominican with a lot of hard work from the team and cast to be and I think it's really disappointing to have this sort of press after that however that's the nature of this game sometimes."
Meanwhile, Pia wrote the following on her Instagram Stories, "ALL MESSAGES WILL BE REPLIED TO BY TOMORROW. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE💖".
With things looking fairly sour between Saffron and new girl, Pia, the only way is up right? No doubt the pair will clear things up in Essex. Let's just hope the cameras are rolling.