Jonathan Van Ness: exposé about them “isn’t really based in reality”

Jonathan Van Ness has broken their silence on a lengthy Rolling Stone exposé published about them in March. The report, which gathered information from multiple sources who had worked closely with the stylist and “grooming expert” on the show, alleged that Van Ness’ “rage issues” caused tension within production and between other members of the Fab Five (Van Ness, Karamo Brown, Antoni Porowski, Tan France, and Bobby Berk). Other sources who had worked closely with Van Ness described them as a “monster,” a “nightmare,” “demeaning,” and emotionally “abusive.”

Van Ness had not publicly addressed the report until this week when they finally spoke about it on the Table Manners podcast with Jessie Ware. “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 said (via The Hollywood Reporter).

“I went from this bankruptcy,” they continued, referring to their product line, JVN Hair, which was sold by its parent company the same month. “Then, ‘Oh, there’s someone who’s going to write an investigative takedown, exposé piece about you that isn’t really based in reality, but can certainly have a lot of things taken out of context to make you look as bad as possible.”

“So from January to March, I was walking on eggshells being like, ‘When is this going to happen?’ And then it finally did happen,” they said. While they didn’t go into detail about any sort of fallout amongst the Queer Eye team—now down one original member in interior designer Bobby Berk, who announced his departure from the show last November—they did discuss the negative response on social media. “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-word],’” they said. “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.”

Van Ness will be back for Queer Eye’s upcoming ninth season, which will feature new design expert Jeremiah Brent, and be set in Las Vegas. No premiere date has been announced as of this writing.