Things are a little unorganized in the Queer Eye household these days. As easy as it would be to blame the new guy, Jeremiah Brent, who replaced Bobby Berk as the one who does everything in season nine, the Fab Five’s appearance on CBS Mornings this morning revealed a house in disarray. The group’s resident culture expert, Karamo Brown, was a no-show, leaving host Gayle King to read a statement from Brown to his Queer Eye brethren in attendance. “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.” It was one of several promotional appearances Brown skipped today, including one on Today With Jenna & Sheinlle, which featured a Karamo-free Drab Four listening to another statement from their lost Eye. Brown’s assistant elaborated on the situation to Variety: “Karamo has felt mentally and emotionally abused for years, and he’s been advised by his therapist to protect himself and his peace by not attending.”
Of course, this left the boys feeling like they could use a couple of young men to come in and clean up this mess. During their CBS Mornings interview, the show’s food expert, Antoni Porowski, was unsurprisingly surprised. Actually, “‘Surprised’ is a fair understatement,” he says. “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 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.” Jonathan Van Ness, the hair expert, said they were proud of Brown. “We have to meet people where they’re at. He has taught people to center 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. 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.”
This isn’t the first time the Queer Eye guys have been in the middle of a bullying controversy, according to Vulture. Upon his exit from the group, Berk mentioned issues with fashion expert Tan France. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone pulled allegations of Jonathan Van Ness being a “monster” to work with out of the rumor mill. The show, which returns tomorrow for its final season, expanded its purview beyond the straight guys of the show’s Bravo origins. Perhaps the Fab Five could use a Queer Eye for the Queer Eye guys. We smell a reunion season already.
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