Jonathan Van Ness Says the ‘Queer Eye’ Exposé Wasn’t ‘Based In Reality’

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | June 28, 2024 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | June 28, 2024 |

Because we live in a world now where most news worth talking about comes out of food and eating-related media content machines, Queer Eye beauty expert Jonathan Van Ness has finally broken their silence about that exposé from back in March—in which sources from the show called them “abusive” and “a monster”—on Jessie Ware’s Table Manners podcast.

To refresh your memory, the whole mess started when it was announced that Bobby Berk would not be returning to the show, thus opening the floodgates to the rumors of a feud between him and his cast mates that had been brewing since the beginning. The Rolling Stone investigation described the Queer Eye work environment as “really toxic,” the fab five as a “manufactured boy band” who were “told to be best friends,” claimed Van Ness had “rage issues” and posited that all of this amounted to tension between Berk and the cast, prompting his exit.

Van Ness has kept quiet about these allegations, which I respect. They sounded to me like when you call an actress “difficult to work with,” which is to say, they sounded misogynistic. The nonbinary person on a cast of cis-gendered, gay men is the source of all evil? Where have I heard that one before?

I’m not sure why this podcast felt like the right moment to address it, especially after the transphobic debacle that was JVN on Dax Shephard’s podcast, but I digress. They put the article’s timing in perspective, explaining that they learned it was being written while they were going through the bankruptcy of their business JVN Hair, after its parent company sold it.

“Then, ‘Oh, there’s someone who’s going to write an investigative takedown, exposé piece about you that isn’t really based in reality, but can certainly have a lot of things taken out of context to make you look as bad as possible,’” they said. “So from January to March, I was walking on eggshells being like, ‘When is this going to happen?’ And then it finally did happen.”

They said the reaction on social media prompted them to stay off their phone. “I think a lot of people were looking for a reason to hate me or looking for a reason to be like, ‘See, I always knew that they were a fake [C-word],” they said. While their family, husband, and team were supportive, they said they “didn’t even get on social media to look at my phone for like three weeks and anytime I tried to dip my toe in, I would immediately see something that was so intensely hurtful.”

They’re back on social media and out in the world now, and Berk has been replaced by celebrity interior designer, Jeremiah Brent. And in case you were wondering, I checked, and Berk is following Brent on Instagram as well as Antoni Porowski and Karamo Brown, but not Van Ness or Tan France. *insert shady eyes emoji here*

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