Queer Eye cast forced to address ‘bullying’ accusations from Fab Five’s Karamo Brown on live TV

Queer Eye’s culture expert Karamo Brown has pulled out of several media interviews promoting the show’s tenth and final season, citing being “mentally and emotionally abused for years” as the reason for his no show.

During an interview with Gayle King on CBS Mornings on 20 January, Brown’s fellow Queer Eye experts Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jeremiah Brent were asked to address their co-star’s absence live on air.

King said that her team had been informed “less than an hour” before the interview commenced that Brown would not be taking part.

The news anchor proceeded to read out a statement from Brown, which said: “I hope everyone remembers the main theme I have tried to teach them over the past decade, which is to focus on and to protect their mental health/peace from people or a world who seek to destroy it, which is why I can’t be there today.”

King added that she had been informed by Brown’s assistant that he was “worried about being bullied” if he appeared on the show. In a separate interview on Today with Jenna Hager and Sheinelle Jones, Jones expanded on Brown’s assistant’s comments. “Karamo has felt mentally and emotionally abused for years and he has been advised by his therapist to protect himself and his peace by not attending,” the assistant’s statement read.

Brown did share a brief video message, which Hager and Jones played on Today, in which he suggested he was not doing interviews with his Queer Eye castmates in order to “protect” himself. “Just like the themes of this season, I’m modelling what I believe is most important, which I want to remind you all. Love yourselves and protect yourselves; that’s why I’m here at home, and not there,” he said.

During their chat with King, the four of the Fab Five were asked to respond to Brown’s comments, with culinary expert Porowski saying that to say he was surprised “is a fair understatement”.

“Our Queer Eye family, we’ve been doing this for almost a decade, which is pretty wild to believe, and families are complicated and we’re definitely not excluded from that,” he continued.

“But I think two things can exist at the same time, and while that is definitely true, we’re also here to showcase these incredible heroes that we have and really honor the legacy of this past decade of our lives and all these wonderful heroes that we’ve had the blessing of getting to meet and to have conversations with.”

An emotional Jeremiah Brent, who replaced Bobby Berk as the show’s interiors and design expert from season nine onwards, was keen to stress that his experience at Queer Eye has been positive.

“My experience in this group has been transformative. To see the way that they move through the world; the way that they have taught me so much about life and friendship and love. I have felt safe and supported by the people up here,” he said.

“I’ve loved every second of this thing, and I am so excited that we get to do this and share this next season, because the show really is just about highlighting the best of humanity. That’s really what it is, and nobody needs that more than this country.”

King gently pushed for a direct response to Brown, stating that she didn’t wish to “negate how Karamo feels”.

Van Ness, the show’s grooming expert, said that they had been “honoured to learn from Karamo” that it’s important “to meet people where they’re at”.

“He has taught people to centre what they need, and I’m actually really proud of him. Center what you need. Do the things you need to do to take care of you,” Ness continued. “I’d be lying if I [said I] didn’t feel like that sometimes, so I think it’s really beautiful. I think we do need to center what’s best for us sometimes. My hat off to him for doing that today.”

Queer Eye‘s tenth and final season is streaming now on Netflix.

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