'Rage issues', 'mean girl antics' and all the other drama surrounding Queer Eye's return.

Bobby Berk's announcement late last year that he would not be returning to Netflix's Queer Eye was, for many, the first crack in the facade.

It seemed like the wholesome-TV equivalent of Zayn Malik's sudden exit from One Direction, and just like many boy band unravellings of the past, led to plenty of speculation about 'the real reason why'.

Conversations about fractures between the show's Fab Five — Berk, Tan France, Karamo Brown, Jonathan Van Ness and Antoni Porowski — and their potential on-set feuds and alliances, flared. Not to mention, the various dramas of the members of the Fab Five unfollowing each other on social media.

With Queer Eye set to return this week — and Berk now officially gone — fans are eager to see what the new dynamic will be like.

But Berk's departure is not the only juicy story to come out of Queer Eye over the years, including the Rolling Stone exclusive 'Inside the Tensions and Tumult at Queer Eye' that made some shocking allegations about the show's talent.

Watch: the Queer Eye season nine official trailer. Post continues below video.

Bobby Berk was fired because of Tan France and Antoni Porowski.

Following Berk's announcement that he was leaving the show, rumours about his alleged falling out with France was one of the strongest leads after Berk seemingly unfollowed him on Instagram.

"I want people to know that Tan and I — we will be fine," Berk said in a January interview with Vanity Fair, acknowledging the alleged fallout without giving a reason as to why.

"There was a situation, and that's between Tan and I, and it has nothing to do with the show. It was something personal that had been brewing — and nothing romantic, just to clarify that."

Though Rolling Stone may have uncovered the reason.

Berk had told Vanity Fair he was under the impression that the entire group were planning to end the series at about season eight. There was even a tearful goodbye at the end of season eight's filming.

"We thought we were done," he said. "Mentally and emotionally, I thought we all moved on. I know I did, and I started planning other things."

But then, Netflix renewed the series for a ninth season to fill a gap left by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. Berk said he was surprised to learn that the other four had agreed to return.

Now, three Rolling Stone sources have alleged that unbeknownst to Berk, France — with alleged help from Porowski — campaigned to replace Berk with their friend and interior designer Jeremiah Brent.

One called it "mean girl antics".

Brent was officially announced as Berk's replacement for season nine.

However, in March, France uploaded a video to his Instagram, denying the rumours that he had anything to do with Berk's departure.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by T A N . F R A N C E (@tanfrance)

"My former colleague getting fired had nothing to do with me trying to get my friend hired," France said. "I didn't get [Brent] hired by getting rid of somebody else."

The sources speculated that the four returning cast members signed back on in order to keep themselves in the zeitgeist, despite spluttering personal brands and businesses.

"Of course, they're all still doing it to maintain popular culture relevance. They're all basically influencers for their own brand," one source said.

JVN accused of "rage issues".

Rolling Stone spoke to seven sources who described Jonathan Van Ness, the show's joyous grooming expert, as a "monster", "nightmare" and "demeaning".

All seven said Van Ness, who uses he/she/they pronouns, would lash out at people they worked closely with. Three described Van Ness as having "rage issues" and being emotionally "abusive".

One Queer Eye source estimated Van Ness would blow up at least once a week and was a "yeller".

"Jonathan's a person who contains multitudes and who has the capacity to be very warm, very charismatic, and has the capacity to make you feel really special that they are paying attention to you," one source said.

"But at least once a day, they would need to yell at somebody. It might be something small, but there's always going to be somebody to point out and blame and make the villain of the day."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jonathan Van Ness (@jvn)

This behaviour reportedly caused tensions within the Fab Five, with certain members including Berk becoming reluctant to shoot scenes with Van Ness.

One production member claimed Van Ness "didn't want to share the spotlight".

"There were times when we couldn’t even shoot scenes with certain members of the Fab Five together because it got so bad," they said.

Netflix executives reportedly held at least one meeting with Van Ness about this behaviour, but little changed.

In June, Van Ness addressed the allegations directly, calling the Vanity Fair article "overwhelmingly untrue and done in bad faith".

"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 like December," Van Ness said.

"So from January to March, I was walking on eggshells being like, 'When is this going to happen?' And then it finally did happen."

They went on to acknowledge that, while "there were times where I could have been better", the majority of what was revealed in the article was "taken out of context."

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A post shared by Jonathan Van Ness (@jvn)

The cast were competitive about screen time.

Queer Eye fans will be very familiar with the joke that Berk did much more work than the rest of the group, but got little thanks for it.

Often, the episodes would routinely cut scenes with Berk, according to four sources. Instead, he would only reappear at the end of episodes to reveal the home makeovers and watch the grand reveal with his cast mates.

For a long time, Berk leaned into the bit.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bobby Berk (@bobby)

But it did take a toll.

"I know Bobby did feel a bit less in the running [of being the fan favourite] because you didn't see him that much in episodes," one source said.

The Fab Five were not friends outside of work.

Despite the warm group environment portrayed in the series, the Fab Five were mostly just co-workers.

Rolling Stone sources said only France and Porowski were friends outside of filming.

"Their relationships have definitely changed since Season One," a production source said. "As in all workplaces, as time moves on, people become closer with some people and move further away from others."

Another source was more blunt: "None of them are friends. They play nice."

In September 2023, during an interview with Andy Cohen, Brown revealed that he, along with other members of the Fab Five, were not invited to Porowski's bachelor party, further fuelling the rumours that the group was not, in fact, close at all.

"Bobby was not invited, I was not invited, and Jonathan was not invited. Just Tan was invited. The shade," he said.

Following Berk's departure announcement, the only member of the Fab Five who made an individual post about him was Brown. But I mean, are we really that surprised that he didn't get along with the others?

"I love YOU with all my heart. I wouldn't have made it this long without you there with me," Brown wrote.

Queer Eye season nine, which will be set in Las Vegas, is returning this week and will be the first time we see the new home expert Jeremiah Brent.

Feature image: Netflix.

This article was originally published in April 2024 and has since been updated with new information.

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