Jonathan Van Ness has broken their silence on allegations of abusive behaviour on the set of Netflix show Queer Eye.
The 37-year-old personal grooming expert, who uses they/them pronouns, was the subject of a Rolling Stone investigation that alleged they had “rage issues” that caused tensions between the group, leading to the departure of fellow cast member Bobby Berk.
Although Van Ness has not previously responded to the allegations, which also described them as a “monster”, they have now given their verdict on the takedown, claiming that the report “isn’t really based in reality”.
Speaking with singer Jessie Ware on the Table Manners podcast, Van Ness broke their silence as they described the impact of the accusations on their personal life.
“There was this article that was written about Queer Eye and myself in March, but our whole Queer Eye family had first learned about this article in December,” they began.
“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.
“So from January to March, I was just walking on eggshells, being like, when is this going to happen? And then it did finally happen.”
The TV personality said that it led them to reflect on their dependency on external validation via social media and Netflix fame.
“One thing it taught me was that I had been getting so much self-esteem from social and my job that I didn’t really think that I did get so much self-esteem from it,” they continued.
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“Then once I had so many people at once, just be really, like, 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***.’
“My family was so supportive, and my husband, and my team, but I 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.”
The show first drew scrutiny following the departure of veteran cast member Bobby Berk, who said he left the show on his own volition. However, fellow cast member Tan France suggested that Berk had been fired in an interview earlier this year. Berk has not responded to the allegation.
