QUEER Eye star Karamo Brown has revealed he has felt “mentally and emotionally abused” after pulling out of a series of cast interviews.

The TV star skipped appearing in a number of morning TV interviews with his Netflix co-stars and instead sent in damning video messages about the way he feels he has been treated over the years.

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The cast of Queer Eye were forced to watch as Karamo revealed he’d been ‘mentally and emotionally abused’Credit: NBC
 

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Karamo, seen at the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party in February 2020, cited concerns as his reason for opting out of the appearanceCredit: Getty
 
He instead sent in a video message to address his concern
Amid rumoured tension between the Fab Five ahead of the show’s final season, Karamo made a number of claims which he appeared to suggest were the reason for him not participating in the day’s press interviews.

Things turned awkward for the cast – Jeremiah Brent, Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France, and Antoni Porowski – on Today with Jenna & Sheinelle when they were forced to watch Karamo’s video message to explain his absence.

He claimed he “has felt mentally and emotionally abused for years,” adding that he was advised by his therapist “to protect himself and his peace by not attending”.

Karamo did not specify who made him feel this way.

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In his video message, he reiterated his earlier sentiment, saying, “Just like the themes of this seasons, I’m modeling what I believe is most important, which I want to remind you all, love yourselves and protect yourselves. That’s why I’m here at home and not there.”

He went on to encourage viewers to tune in to the Season 10 premiere of Queer Eye, stating that he “loved every minute of it,” and gave a special shout out to the show’s crew.

“The crew worked on it and did an amazing job. I want to shout out the crew. I want to shout out to the fans. I want to shout out to the executives at Netflix,” Karamo said.

He notably did not shout out his costars.

The rest of the Fab Five could be seen sitting on the programme’s sofa as they held hands in unison.

The Florida native’s absence comes just days after he unfollowed three members of the beloved show’s cast ahead of the Season 10 premiere.

It was the second interview of the day that Karamo had failed to appear in with the Netflix personality also skipping a chat on CBS Mornings.

As with Today with Jenna & Shinelle, CBS host Gayle King informed the audience that Karamo had pulled out of the scheduled interview just an hour before they were due to go live.

“People call it the Fab Five, but one of the Fab Five is not here. We received word just, less than an hour ago that Karamo Brown is not going to be joining us today,” Gayle, 71, said in her opening statement.

The show aired a statement from the TV personality in which he addressed his absence, citing his concerns.

“I hope everyone remembers the main theme I have tried to teach them over the past decade, which is to focus on and to protect their mental health/peace from people or a world who seek to destroy it; which is why I can’t be there today,” he wrote.

Gayle then turned things over to the cast, asking for their reaction to Karamo’s decision.

Antoni, 41, alluded to an ongoing feud between members of the cast, saying, “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 that we have and really honor the legacy of this past decade of our lives and all these wonderful heroes we’ve had the blessing of getting to meet and have conversations with.”

Jeremiah then jumped in, assuring viewers his experience on Queer Eye has been nothing short of positive.

“My experience in this group has been transformative,” he said.

“I have felt safe and supported by the people up here. I have loved every second of this thing and I am so excited that we get to do this and share this next season.”

Gayle applauded the sentiment, adding, “I don’t think we can negate how Karamo feels.”

At that point, Jonathan shared a lesson learned from 10 seasons of filming with the father of two.

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Jeremiah and Jonathan both spoke out about their experience on the show in the wake of Karamo’s absence and surprising statementCredit: CBS
“I would say one thing that I’ve been so honored to learn from Karamo in my time is, just like he said in that package, we have to meet people where they’re at,” the hairstylist said.

“He has taught people to center what they need and I’m actually really proud of him.

“Center what you need, do the things you need to do to take care of you. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel like that sometimes, so I think it’s really beautiful and I think we do need to center what’s best for us sometimes.”

CUTTING TIES

On January 15, fans flocked to Reddit after noticing a shift in Karamo’s Instagram following.

The author apparently unfollowed co-stars Tan, 42, Antoni, and Jonathan, 38.

It’s unclear when or why Karamo decided to cut the trio from his followers.

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Rumors of a feud between Karamo and other members of the Queer Eye cast have been brewing ahead of the Season 10 premiere on NetflixCredit: CBS
He is still following Jeremiah, 41, and former Queer Eye star, Bobby Berk.

Fans sounded off in the comments, with many speculating that tensions must be bubbling over between the reality TV stars.

“Sounds messssssy,” one person wrote.

“They also aren’t doing any joint press to promote the new season (so far) which is soooo different from previous years when they did tons of interview to really sell people on the dynamic being real. This time it’s giving ‘we wish this was over’ energy,” a second fan pointed out.

“It’s possible to just mute an account without unfollowing. To unfollow is so petty and speaks to how much these people despise each other,” a third said.

“It’s likely that Karamo blocked JVN, Tan and Antoni. There’s no trace of them at all in his IG. Unfollowing doesn’t erase old comments and likes but blocking does. Karamo’s IG has been scrubbed of all traces of the three,” speculated a fourth.

“They need to lay it all out on the table if they’re going to be this messy,” complained a fifth commenter.

Netflix announced that Queer Eye, the streamer’s longest-running unscripted series, would be coming to an end after 10 seasons.

A short time later, it was announced that the show’s final season will have half the amount of episodes a typical season does, cutting it down from 10 episodes to just five.

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Queer Eye stars Jeremiah, Jonathan, Tan, and Antoni had nothing negative to say about Karamo during CBS Mornings, praising him for doing what he felt necessaryCredit: CBS
The season was reportedly filmed during summer 2025, during which the Fab Five worked alongside heroes in the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

Longtime fans expressed major disappointment over both the abbreviated impending season, and the show’s end.

Some speculated that the series was no longer “a priority” to the cast, all of whom were catapulted to success after the Queer Eye debut in 2018.

Others slammed the cast, claiming they were giving it the “minimum energy” toward the series’ end.

Karamo, Antoni, Jonathan, and Tan have appeared on Queer Eye since it first aired.

Bobby, 44, co-starred alongside them for the first eight seasons, and was replaced with Jeremiah in Season 9.

The interior design expert’s 2023 exit from the Netflix original series came amid rumors of a falling-out with co-star Tan.

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CBS Mornings host Gayle King questioned the Queer Eye cast about Karamo’s sudden absence from the daytime TV appearanceCredit: CBS
 

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Karamo has served as the culture expert on Netflix’s Queer Eye since 2018Credit: Alamy
 

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Queer Eye returns to Netflix for its 10th and final season on January 21Credit: Netfl