Netflix star Karamo Brown dropped out of a “CBS Mornings” interview he was set to participate in alongside his “Queer Eye” crew on Tuesday, leaving a message to viewers that they need to “protect their mental health.”
His absence came up Tuesday morning right as co-stars Tan France, Jonathan Van Ness, Antoni Porowski and Jeremiah Brent were about to start their conversation. Host Gayle King then mentioned that less than an hour prior, production informed them that Brown would be absent from the chat, but that he’d left a message for viewers.
“He apologized for not attending this interview, he thanked the audience, he said, in part: ‘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,” she recited.
“His assistant also says that he’s worried about being bullied,” she further added.
Porowski quickly jumped in to address the matter. “Surprised is a fair understatement,” he said. “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 and 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 we have and really honor the legacy of this past decade of our lives and all these wonderful heroes that we’ve had the blessing of getting to meet and have conversations with.”
Brent, who replaced original Fab Five co-star Bobby Berk in Season 9, then cut in to share that he’s had a “transformative” experience being part of the show. Berk notably left the Netflix series after Season 8 in 2024, though he explained his departure as a contract-based decision.
The group has recently been on the road promoting “Queer Eye’s” 10th and final season. The series returns Wednesday, Jan. 21, on Netflix.
