Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness has finally addressed the allegations that they were emotionally “abusive” and had “rage issues” on the set of the hit Netflix show.
In a new episode of the Table Manners podcast with Jessie Ware, JVN refuted the allegations, but revealed they had been aware of the impending report since late last year.
“I went from this bankruptcy to then, ‘Oh, there’s someone who’s going to write an investigative takedown, like exposé piece about you that isn’t really based in reality, but can certainly have a lot of things taken out of context to like make you look as bad as possible,’” Van Ness said.
The Fab Five star said the story “isn’t based in reality”, but noted their behaviour could’ve been better at times.
“Even though I do believe that that article was overwhelmingly untrue and done in bad faith,” Van Ness said. “There have obviously been times throughout my career where you’re stressed out, or I may have been elbow-deep in highlights and was like, ‘No, I can’t talk about that right now.’”
Van Ness claims they didn’t look at social media for three weeks after the story broke because they would see something “intensely hurtful” whenever they did.
For those unfamiliar, the Rolling Stone article published in March featured claims from seven different people who had worked on Queer Eye, with allegations ranging from being difficult to work with and creating a tense working atmosphere, to “rage issues” on set.
Throughout the report, JVN is described as a “monster” and a “nightmare”, among other things.
Season 9 of Queer Eye is coming soon to Netflix, with Jeremiah Brent replacing Bobby Berk. An exact release date is yet to be confirmed, but the stars shared the news that production had wrapped earlier this month.
