The stars of Netflix’s Queer Eye made the network morning show rounds Tuesday to promote the show’s forthcoming final season, but one of the group chose not to join them.
Karamo Brown, the show’s culture expert, said in a statement to CBS Mornings — the Queer Eye team’s first stop Tuesday — that he opted out of the interview to focus on his mental health. Brown’s assistant also sent a statement to NBC’s Today saying that “Karamo has felt mentally and emotionally abused for years.”
Brown’s co-stars — Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France and Jeremiah Brent — reacted with surprise to his absence. On CBS Mornings, anchor Gayle King said the show received word less than an hour before the cast’s appearance that Brown wouldn’t be on camera and read part of a statement he sent to the show: “I hope everyone remembers the main theme I have tried to teach them over the past decade, which is to focus on and protect their mental health/peace from people or a world who seek to destroy it; which is why I can’t be there today.”
King also said that Brown’s assistant said “he’s worried about being bullied.”
“Surprised is a fair understatement,” Porowski said of Brown not being with the group. “I will say, our Queer Eye family, we’ve been doing this for almost a decade, which is pretty wild to believe. And families are complicated. 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 we have and honor the legacy of this past decade of our lives.” Watch the segment below.
Van Ness added that Brown “has taught people to center what they need. I’m actually really proud of him.”
On the fourth hour of Today, co-host Sheinelle Jones read a statement from Brown’s assistant that says in part, “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.” Brown did send a video message thanking Queer Eye’s fans and saying he is modeling one of the themes of the final season: “Love yourselves and protect yourselves. That’s why I’m here at home and not there.”
“We’re so sorry that he’s not here,” Porowski said. “We fully support, as a collective unit, him taking care of himself.”
Brown didn’t specify any instances of emotional or mental abuse, nor did his co-stars reply directly to that part of his statement or to, as King said on CBS, his fears of being bullied. The Hollywood Reporter has asked Netflix for comment.
