Jonathan Van Ness responded to the Queer Eye set allegations. (Getty)
Jonathan Van Ness has responded to the Queer Eye behaviour allegations after reports alleged that they had “rage issues” on set.
In March, seven individuals who worked on the Netflix series — from which fellow cast member Bobby Berk has since departed — accused the 37-year-old hairstylist and podcast host of being a “nightmare” to work with.
One source described to Rolling Stone how Van Ness, who is non-binary and uses he/she/they pronouns, would allegedly “explode” frequently while filming, and create an “intense and scary” atmosphere.
Although Van Ness has never publicly commented on the allegations — aside from sharing cryptic lyrics online — the JVN Hair founder has now spoken out on the claims, saying that “a lot of people were looking for a reason to hate me”.
In an appearance on Jessie and Lennie Ware’s Table Manners podcast, the reality star spoke about navigating the claims after the story broke.
“There was this article that was written about Queer Eye and myself in March, but our whole Queer Eye family had first learned about this article in December,” she said to the “Say You Love Me” singer.
“I went from this bankruptcy,” Van Ness explained, referring to JVN Hair being sold by previous parent company Amyris during its bankruptcy proceedings, “then, ‘oh, there’s someone who’s going to write an investigative takedown, like 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.’”
He continued: “So from January to March, I was just walking on eggshells being like, ‘when is this going to happen?’ And then it did finally happen.”
Speaking about the reaction online to the claims, Van Ness added: “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***.’
“My family was so supportive, and my husband, and my team, but I didn’t even get on social media to look at my phone for like three weeks,” they said. “Anytime I tried to dip my toe in, I would immediately see something that was so intensely hurtful.”
PinkNews reached out to representatives of Jonathan Van Ness for comment at the time.