Karamo Brown from Queer Eye was missing from press interviews to promote the 10th and final season of the makeover show, after claims he felt ‘abused’.
His co-stars, Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Jonathan Van Ness and Jeremiah Brent, joined hosts on NBC’s TODAY and CBS Mornings but Brown was notably absent.
On NBC, presenter Sheinelle Jones quoted a note from Brown’s assistant which said: ‘Karamo has felt mentally and emotionally abused for years, and he has been advised by his therapist to protect himself and his peace by not attending.’
She then shared a pre-recorded video from Brown, in which he said: ‘I’m modelling 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.’
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He continued by shouting out the crew, fans and executives from Netflix, who he thanked for having him for 10 seasons.
Similarly on CBS, Gayle King addressed the fact that Brown was missing from the show.
She said they found out less an hour ago that he wouldn’t be joining them, before reading a statement he had provided: ‘”Though the show is ending, 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.”‘
King went on: ‘His assistant also says that he’s worried about being bullied.’
After asking the rest of the cast if they were surprised, Porowski responded: ‘Surprised is a fair understatement.
‘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 honour the legacy of this past decade of our lives.’
Brent, who joined the show as the interior design expert replacing Bobby Berk in 2024, added that his ‘experience in this group has been transformative’, and that he ‘felt safe and supported by the people up here.’
After Brent had finished speaking, King said: ‘I don’t think we can negate how Karamo feels, does anybody have anything to say to him specifically?’
At this point, Van Ness said: ‘One thing that I’ve been so honoured to learn from Karamo in my time, just like he said in that package, we have to meet people where they’re at.
‘And he has taught people to centre what they need, and I’m actually really proud of him. […]
‘I think we do need to centre what’s best for us sometimes and my hat off to him for doing that today.’
The show has been running for 10 seasons on Netflix, starting with the Fab Five in 2018.
Since then, they’ve attempted to transform the lives of individuals by providing guidance on fashion, grooming, food, interior design and lifestyle.
Metro has commented Netflix, Scout Productions and a representative for Karamo Brown for comment.
Queer Eye is available to stream on Netflix.
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