Jonathan Van Ness responds to accusations of emotional abuse and toxicity on Queer Eye

Jonathan Van Ness, the American hairstylist and television personality, recently opened up about the Rolling Stone investigation and accusations that they were emotionally abusive on the set of Netflix's hit show Queer Eye.

On Wednesday, June 26, 2024, they appeared on the Table Manners podcast with host English singer-songwriter Jessie Ware. The 37-year-old explained that they first found out about the March exposé in December and added,

"So from January to March, I was walking on eggshells being like, ‘When is this going to happen?’ And then it finally did happen. 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].'"

Van Ness denied the claims and said that the article was "overwhelmingly untrue and done in bad faith."

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Jonathan Van Ness talks about the Rolling Stone article and emotional abuse allegations on set of Queer Eye

Jonathan Van Ness is part of the Fab Five in the Netflix show Queer Eye, which is based on a team of queer professionals who make lifestyle and fashion makeovers for guests. The original group also included Tan France, Bobby Berk, Antoni Porowski, and Karamo Brown.

In March, Rolling Stone published an article about the series and Jonathan Van Ness. The piece took reports from seven Queer Eye production sources who described the grooming expert as “emotionally abusive” on set. The staff mentioned them as a “monster” and a “nightmare.”

One of the crew members spoke about the sudden outbursts from the hairstylist, calling it “intense and scary” and explained their behavior as “almost like a cartoon where it oozes out of them.” A different informant added Jonathan Van Ness would shout or make a scene “at least once a day,” they used to pick a member of the production to “point out and blame and make the villain of the day.”

The Netflix star has since addressed the accusations on the Table Manners podcast. They spoke about the time they were first made aware of the exposé, referring to the time their business, JVN Hair, was to be sold by its parent company.

"I went from this bankruptcy. 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.'"

Queer Eye began on the Bravo network in July 2003 and has been rebooted on Netflix with 8 seasons. Jonathan Van Ness talked about the online hate they received from the article and also mentioned the alleged "toxic" work environment on set.

"There have obviously been times throughout my career where you’re stressed out, or I may have been elbow-deep in highlights and was like, ‘No, I can’t talk about that right now.' I know that there were times where I could have been better. But I think also being a survivor of abuse and talking about everything that I've talked about, I internalized it so badly."

The hairstylist shared they questioned if they were "really this bad person?". However, they claimed that they eventually learned "how to slow down, disengage, and then really love myself." Jonathan Van Ness explained that their family, husband Mark Peacock, and their team were supportive.

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The Fab Five has since welcomed a newcomer, Jeremiah Brent, who replaced design expert Bobby Berk.