Feuding five?! Queer Eye star Karamo Brown revealed that despite the seemingly close-knit onscreen relationship with his costars Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, Tan France and Bobby Berk, things weren’t always so amicable once production shut down.
In fact, things got so heated between Brown, 38, and Porowski, 35, at one point, the pair didn’t converse for the entirety of season 1!
“My castmate in Queer Eye, Antoni, people didn’t know that we had an extreme amount of conflict,” the Karamo: My Story of Embracing Purpose, Healing and Hope author said in a new interview with E! News’ Just the Sip. “We did not talk to each other at all during season 1 even though we were shooting together.”
He continued: “On camera, it was about that person and about creating something successful and so, that was genuine, but off camera, the minute that camera stopped rolling, ‘Girl, don’t come near me.’”
The same was true for the Canada native. “He didn’t want me to come near him,” Brown quipped.
According to the Real World alum, his beef with the chef started ahead of filming. “Our personalities got along, but then a third party got involved, and once that third got involved, he and I couldn’t even talk to each other, because we were too busy hearing rumors of what this third party was spreading about both of us,” Brown explained, noting that the third party was “someone in-house.” He did not, however, divulge the person’s identity.
Even as tensions ran high, Brown says he and Porowski were able to put aside their differences for the sake of the show. “We always, before we would go on camera, we would say to each other, ‘It’s not about us, it’s about this person.’ … We always had a clear intention of like, when we’re walking through, it’s about helping them.”
Eventually, the duo were able to hash things out over an hour-long conversation — just in time to do press together for their hit Netflix series. “We were like, ‘Why did we just go through all those months of BS?’”
Now, the two are closer than ever: Brown shared an Instagram video on April 30 with Porowski — the first guest on his new podcast, “Vulnerable,” during which they discussed the topic of conflict.
Season 3 of Queer Eye is available to stream on Netflix now and the show’s new special, Queer Eye: We’re in Japan!, will air later this year.
