Queer Eye Stars Speak Out After Karamo Brown Pulls Out Of Group Interview At Last Minute

Queer Eye has found itself at the centre of yet more drama, after cast member Karamo Brown pulled out of a joint interview with his co-stars at the eleventh hour.

In the lead-up to the Netflix lifestyle show’s 10th and final season, which was released on Wednesday morning, the central “Fab Five” had been booked to appear on Tuesday’s edition of CBS Mornings.

However, at the beginning of the segment, anchor Gayle King announced that “less than an hour” before going on air, they’d received word that Karamo would not be participating in the group interview.

She then read out a statement from Karamo, in which he said: “Thank you to everyone around the world for welcoming me into their homes for 10 seasons. Season 10 is amazing and I know you will fall in love with the deserving people we helped. 

“Though the show is ending, 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.”

He added: “Thank you to the crew for being the best in business and the executives for believing in me. 10 seasons, I’m truly humbled.”

Gayle told the rest of the cast she was “very sorry” to hear that Karamo “apparently feels this way”, to which food expert Antoni Porowski agreed: “As are we.”

“Surprised is a fair understatement,” he said of Karamo’s absence. “I will say, 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.

“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 honour 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.”

New addition Jeremiah Brent – who took over from Bobby Brown last season – then said: “Can I just say one quick thing? I just want to say – and I’m not going to get choked up – my experience in this group has been transformative. 

“To see the way that they world 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, I have loved every second of this thing, and I am so excited that we get to do this and share this next season, because this show is just about highlighting the best of humanity.

“And that’s really what it is, and nobody needs that more than this country right now.”

“That’s the theme of the show but I don’t think we can negate how Karamo feels,” Gayle responded, asking the cast if anyone has a message for their absent co-star.

“I would say, one thing that I have been so honoured to learn from Karamo in my time is, just like he said, we have to meet people where they’re at,” Jonathan Van Ness replied.

“He has taught people to centre what they need, and I’m actually really proud of him. Centre what you need, do the things you need to take care of you. I’d be lying if I [said I] didn’t feel like that sometimes.

“And so, I think it’s really beautiful. And we do need to centre what’s best for us sometimes, and I take my hat off to him for doing that today.”

Queer Eye became an instant hit when it premiered on Netflix in 2018, making household names of its central “Fab Five”.

In the last few years, though, the show has repeatedly been rocked by scandal and speculation about behind-the-scenes drama among the cast.

Bobby Brown eventually stepped down as the show’s resident design expert in 2023, confirming that before he left he’d had a falling out with Tan France.

“We became like siblings – and siblings are always going to fight,” Bobby explained.

A year later, a total of four Queer Eye production sources and three former colleagues spoke anonymously to Rolling Stone for an exposé in which they described Jonathan as a “nightmare” and a “monster” who is “demeaning” and emotionally “abusive”.

Jonathan responded by telling the Table Manners podcast that this article was “not really based in reality”, although they did concede: “I know there were times where I could have been better.”

Other sources interviewed for the article also took aim at JVN’s co-stars, Tan France and Antoni Porowski, alleging they engaged in “mean-girl antics” to get Bobby Berk axed from the show to make room for incoming cast member Jeremiah Brent, which Tan denied.

“My former colleague getting fired had nothing to do with me trying to get my friend hired,” he insisted. “I didn’t put my friend up for the job. They ended up getting it because they were the best person for the job.”

Queer Eye season 10 is now streaming on Netflix.