Hania's Excuse For Introducing Ash As His ‘Friend’ To Women

One of the most memorable moments on the premiere of “Temptation Island” Season 4 happened when Ash Lamiroult dropped the bombshell that their significant other, Hania Stocker, often refers to them as his “friend” when meeting other women rather than revealing they’re romantically involved.  

Although Ash was struggling with how to react on the show, they had a lot to say during the first episode “Temptation Island After Show” of Season 4. The jaw-dropping moment caught single suitor James Patterson by surprise when Ash broke it down to him during a private chat at the villa. During the After Show, Ash sat with the coupled ladies to re-watch the conversation and unpack their thoughts following their experience of the show. 

“With Hania calling me his friend upon introduction, I feel like I really can’t make an excuse for why I allowed that,” Ash tells the women.  

Ash explains they would often suppress their feelings about being introduced as a “friend” so as not to make waves in the relationship. They say they didn’t feel like it was their job to correct Hania or ruin an introduction to a new person by having to mark their territory. 

“That seems sad or desperate,” Ash says.  

When Hania watches the same clip with the men, he understands what a bad look it is but doesn’t have a great excuse as to why he did it.  

“I totally understand what Ash was saying about the red flags,” Hania, 30, tells the men. “I see them now myself. When you’re in your 20s, there’s just so much going on and it’s really hard.” 

Hania adds: “She was asking for a boundary to be set around our relationship, and instead I was setting a boundary between me and her. That may not have been completely conscious but it was intentional, if that makes sense … I was insulting her in front of her face and in front of other people.” 

The women agree that it’s Hania’s job to explain the nature of their relationship, especially to strange women hitting on him. With the benefit of hindsight, Ash seemingly feels a lot more open to calling out such disrespectful behavior.  

“My favorite was: ‘But you are my friend.’ OK, so we’re just friends,” Ash says, gesturing toward their body. “Gone, off-limits. I don’t sleep with my friends.”  

Fortunately for Hania (albeit sadly for humanity), he’s not alone. Luke Wechselberger and Iris Jardiel confess that they faced a similar issue. The duo share a story from their past where Luke neglected to introduce Iris at all when he bumped into his ex. Luckily for him, Luke now sees the error of his ways and tries to impart his hard-earned wisdom to the guys.  

“It’s just little things like that, they add up and can really make a great relationship have weak points,” he says.  

The question now is whether the boys’ newfound understanding of the weak points in their relationships is too little, too late? 

"Temptation Island" airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. ET on USA Network. Catch up now on USA Network.