Jonathan Van Ness says allegations in his ‘Queer Eye’ expose are not ‘based in reality’

The Fab Five: Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Bobby Berk and Jonathan Van Ness.

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strange eye Star Jonathan Van Ness has, for the first time, publicly commented on allegations they were abusive on the set of Netflix’s hit makeover series.

The grooming expert was caught at the center of a rolling stone investigation in March this year which claimed Van Ness had “rage issues” and that subsequent tensions within the Fab Five prompted Bobby Berk to leave the show.

The report said three sources who worked with Van Ness, 37, described them as emotionally “abusive” and “monsters.” The claims included that strange eye‘s work environment was “really toxic” with a “manufactured boy band” who were “told to be best friends.” Other stars of the eight-series show include Karamo Brown, Tan France and Antoni Porowski.

Van Ness, who uses “they/them” pronouns, has yet to respond to the allegations and has now said the article was not “really based in reality.” They spoke to English singer-songwriter Jessie Ware at the Table manners podcast, released Wednesday.

“There was this article that was written about strange eye and me in March, but all our strange eye The family first heard about this article in December,” Van Ness said.

“I went from that bankruptcy,” they explained, referring to the sale of their business JVN Hair by its parent company. “Then, ‘Oh, there’s someone who’s going to write an investigative piece, an exposé on you that’s not really based in reality, but certainly could have a lot of things taken out of context to make you look the worst possible.

“So from January to March, I was walking on eggshells wondering, ‘When is this going to happen?’ And then, finally, it happened,” they said.

Discussing the reaction of social media users following the report, Van Ness added: “I think a lot of people were looking for a reason to hate me or looking for a reason to say, ‘See, I always knew that ‘they were fake (C-word). »

They said the allegations made them put down their phones for weeks as the article circulated. “My family has been very supportive, as well as my husband and my team. But I didn’t even go on social media to look at my phone for about three weeks and every time I tried to dip my toe in, I would immediately see something so intensely hurtful.

Earlier in March, strange eyeFrance’s fashion guru claimed on Instagram that Berk had been fired. France wrote: “I just want to make one point really quickly. My former coworker’s firing had nothing to do with my efforts to get my friend hired. » Berk has not commented, but when he announced the news of his departure, he said it was “my decision.”