“Queer Eye” hairstylist Jonathan Van Ness has responded to Rolling Stone’s reports of his alleged abusive behavior on the set of the Netflix reality series.
In the March exposé, seven “Queer Eye” production sources claimed Van Ness was “emotionally abusive” on set, going as far as to call them a “monster” and a “nightmare.” One source called their outbursts “intense and scary” describing their behavior as “almost like a cartoon where it oozes out of them.” Another crew member added Van Ness would lash out “at least once a day,” picking one member of the production to “point out and blame and make the villain of the day.”
After months of silence after the allegations, Van Ness has responded via an interview on the “Table Manners” podcast in which the “Queer Eye” cast member said the story “isn’t really based in reality.”
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“Even though I do believe that that article was overwhelmingly untrue and done in bad faith,” Van Ness said. “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.'”
They continued, “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. I was like, ‘Oh my God, is it true? Like, am I really this bad person?’”
Van Ness added that they used the article as an opportunity to “slow down, disengage and then really love myself,” allowing time for them to “feel [their] feelings.”
“I just had to kind of withdraw and go into myself and feel it,” Van Ness said. “And then once I got done feeling it, I was able to get the language to be able to say what I just said. It just kind of paralyzed me.”
