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van-ness-nightmare.jpg

Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness Is Reportedly an 'Abusive' 'Nightmare'

By Dustin Rowles | TV | March 5, 2024 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | March 5, 2024 |


van-ness-nightmare.jpg

Rolling Stone’s report on the departure of Bobby Berk from Netflix’s Queer Eye doesn’t contain too many new details beyond what Berk reported to Vanity Fair in January, except for the purported behavior of the show’s break-out star, Jonathan Van Ness.

While the cast members of Queer Eye play friends on TV, they are not friends in real-life (save for Tan France and Antoni Porowski). There’s a lot of jockeying for screen time, but by far, Van Ness is responsible for the most turmoil. Their behavior, according to Rolling Stone, factored into Berk’s decision to leave the series.

As described by Rolling Stone’s sources, Van Ness sounds like a nightmare.

Four Queer Eye production sources and three sources who worked with Van Ness said the reality star was terrible to work with, using words like “monster,” “nightmare,” and “demeaning” to describe them. Three people labeled Van Ness as emotionally “abusive” and having “rage issues,” and all seven sources said the star would lash out at crew members and people who worked closely with Van Ness.

“[There’s] a real emotion of fear around them when they get angry. It’s almost like a cartoon where it oozes out of them,” one source who worked with Van Ness explains. “It’s intense and scary.” During filming, one production source estimated that Van Ness would explode at least once a week. “He was a yeller,” they said.

While acknowledging that Van Ness is capable of being warm and affectionate, “at least once a day, they would need to yell at somebody. It might be something small, but there’s always going to be somebody to point out and blame and make the villain of the day.”

It got so bad that some members of the team, including Bobby Berk, did not want to film scenes with Van Ness. While Netflix had reportedly spoken to Van Ness about their behavior, it did not result in an appreciable change.

That said, all sources do not hesitate to note that the experiences of the “heroes” in each episode are “very real.” The expectation, nevertheless, is that the show will not continue beyond the next season.

Source: Rolling Stone