What happened to Elliot Neese on Deadliest Catch?

It is easy for celebrities to just up and leave the show.
We are the ones left to clean the mess, aren’t we?
Let us take Elliott Neese as an example, who left Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch years ago.
Now, we are left to address all the fans about why he left and if he will return.
What happened to him?
We wouldn’t slack off, even if it’s a drag for us.
And since you’re here, you might as well get all the new updates about Elliott Neese.

Firstly, let’s see what happened to him and why he left.
Elliott Neese appeared in the hit Discovery series back in 2011, during its seventh season, and immediately wowed the audience.
As a charismatic and 29-year-old, he was already a capable captain for his young age.
After beginning as captain of the Ramblin’ Rose for a couple of seasons, he moved on to captain the bigger FV Saga along with two other co-captains, Roger Strong and Jake Anderson.
After a popular run for a few more seasons, Neese quit the show after Season 5 due to controversial reasons.

The controversial reason for his departure was his substance abuse problems, which had been becoming more and more apparent in the show.
However, Neese was considerate enough to let his fans know, shortly after going AWOL from the show, that he would be attending a 60-day rehab program for drug addiction.
We understand how personal one’s struggle with drug addiction can be, and we respect Elliott’s decision to keep much of his battle private.
Without Elliott’s recovery appearing on Deadliest Catch, there was no way for us to keep track of it.
However, Elliott eventually opened up about it on his social media, where he is somewhat active.

In early 2017, he revealed in an Instagram post that he had apparently relapsed but was again 90 days clean.
Since then, Neese seems to have kept out of trouble, based on our knowledge of his social media activity and the fact that he has not made tabloid headlines.
Elliott has also been putting on a lot of healthy weight since he began to sober up in 2017, adding as much as 20 pounds of muscle.

Almost a decade ago, before his drug addiction issues became public, Elliott made headlines for another controversial issue—domestic violence charges.
His ex-girlfriend and baby mama, Valerie Gunderson, obtained a temporary restraining order against Elliott after she claimed he reportedly snapped and made her genuinely fear for her life.
Her 2012 allegations were only the most recent of events; she further claimed that he had physically attacked her in 2006 and smashed all her belongings in 2010.
We do not know if the restraining order still exists.
It goes without saying that the couple is separated now, but Elliott still spends time with the two children they share together.
They have one son and one daughter, who Elliott frequently shares on his socials.
He posted an old photo of his son along with his mother a week before his 12th birthday in late September 2017, where he called him and Valerie “Gucci-looking parents.”

Elliott’s Future
It prompted us to believe that maybe things were a little better between the two in recent times.
Since his 2015 exit from the show, he has not returned to the series, and by now, we have lost hope that he ever will.
While he may not return to the show, he is still very active as a commercial fisherman.
When one fan asked him on Twitter in 2017 whether he would return, he tagged the show’s executive producer, Derek Watson, forwarding the decision to him.
Watson replied, “I stand by you 100%, Elliott. I know I tried like hell to get you on Season 13, and you know how that turned out. Maybe Season 14. Keep going, Al.”

Elliott’s Social Media
His LinkedIn account suggests that he is still working as a captain of the Saga and is a reality star on Deadliest Catch, but that is less likely since we have not seen him in either role for almost six years.
Furthermore, many fans were not happy with what they saw from Elliott in his later seasons before he left.
Fans who were unaware of his substance abuse problems found that Elliott did not contribute much to the storyline, while those who knew were triggered by how he was putting the rest of his crew in trouble.
A fan even started an online petition to get Neese removed, which collected almost 200 signatures before it was closed after Elliott willingly left the show.

His social media suggests that he is still living his life fondly, just the way he always has.
He travels around the world—from Mexico to Fiji to South Africa—and continues to fish wherever he goes, mostly with his father, Mike Neese, who was also a fisherman and former ship captain.
Mike was the one who raised Elliott in the business and taught him everything he knows about it.

Elliott’s Family
He is currently dating a new girlfriend, Arie Frenenbergs, since the beginning of 2015.
He shared pictures with Arie until late 2017, so they were together for around two years by then, but we do not know if they are still dating.
Even if they are no longer together, Elliott has shown that he can bounce back from anything, whether it be drug addiction or being kicked off the show, so we are sure he will be fine.
Previously, he held a net worth of around $500,000.
Although he has not been active as a reality star, he has kept busy in his fishing career, and we believe he has other business endeavors we are not aware of.
We think that he will have maintained the net worth of $500,000 as of 2021.