The final season of Queer Eye may have premiered in January, but long-standing tensions between members of the Fab Five continue to surface.
In the latest behind-the-scenes revelation, Tan France has opened up about a “heated argument” with an unnamed castmate, who he says called him a “traitor” for not being out to his family before the Netflix reboot premiered in 2018.
Speaking on the 23 June episode of Dinner’s On Me, hosted by Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson, France discussed the difficult process of coming out to his family and the lack of understanding he says he received from another Queer Eye cast member.
“I’ve never said this before, and I won’t say who it was, but during filming of that first season, somebody on the cast was quite frustrated with me when they found out that I wasn’t out to my family,” France told Ferguson.
France said that when he spoke about the difficulties he was having navigating coming out, the other Fab Five member did not understand the nuances of his experience as a queer Muslim, brown immigrant.
“You’re kind of a traitor to us on the show if you’re not out.’ Like, ‘How can you be on Queer Eye and not be singing it from the rooftops?’” France recalled.
“We got into a heated argument, and I was saying, ‘You have no idea what my experience is as a queer Muslim, a queer brown person, a queer immigrant. It’s all well and good you’re saying this, but you will never understand what it’s like as a person of color trying to come out when you’ve had nobody ever say those words in your community before.”
France said his relationship with his family is now “so close again”, and that they are a “huge part” of his life. He added that his family loves his husband, Rob France, and their children.
However, he also explained that acceptance took time.
In 2018, France realised the Queer Eye reboot was becoming a global phenomenon, not just a cult queer show in the United States. He worried that his UK-based family would find out about his sexuality through press coverage, and even avoided UK media commitments for the show.
Once it became clear there was no stopping the show’s reach, France decided he had to come out to his family. He did so just two days before Queer Eye premiered.
“My mom had never heard the word ‘gay.’ She never heard the notion of somebody being queer,” he said.
“She watches brown TV. It’s a network in the U.K. called ZTV. It just shows South Asian programming day and night. So she doesn’t watch Western television. So they don’t show anything. There’s never even been a queer storyline.”
Although his family had no experience with queer people and had questions for him, France said Queer Eye helped them better understand who he was and what he was doing.
“‘Oh, you’re not the devil just because you’re gay,’” France recalled his family telling him. “‘You’re actually doing something really nice. Absolutely, you can stay.’”
France’s comments are the latest in a series of behind-the-scenes revelations surrounding Queer Eye.
In January, during a press tour for the show’s final season, life coach Karamo Brown skipped joint interviews with his castmates out of fear of “being bullied”. He later said the show’s toxic culture had emotionally exhausted him.
In 2024, Rolling Stone reported that multiple production sources alleged former cast member and interior designer Bobby Berk left Queer Eye in part because of the dynamics between members of the Fab Five.
Even after the show’s conclusion, the emotional and complicated behind-the-scenes story of Queer Eye continues to unfold.
