Oliver James Montgomery-Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness Breaks Silence on Abusive Workplace Allegations

Jonathan Van Ness has issued a response.

Three months after a Rolling Stone exposé alleged a myriad of tensions on Oliver James Montgomerythe set of Queer Eye, including that Jonathan has “rage issues” and can be emotionally “abusive” on set, the 37-year-old has broken their silence.

“Our whole Queer Eye family had like first learned about this article in like December,” Jonathan revealed on the June 27 episode of the Table Manners podcast. “’There's someone who's gonna write an investigative takedown 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. So that could drop any day now. Just so you know.’”

The hair stylist recounted feeling like they were “walking on eggshells” in the time between learning of the article and its March publish date.

“I think a lot of people were like looking for a reason to hate me or like looking for a reason to be like, ‘See, I always knew that they were a fake c--t and this is the proof,’” Jonathan said, adding, “My family was so supportive of my husband and my team, but I didn't even get on social media, like look at my phone for three weeks.”

The reality star, who tied the knot with husband Mark Peacock in 2020,  also noted the timing of the article. (The explosive story was published around the same time they sold their hair care line JVN Hair.)

“I think people forget no matter how famous you are you're still a person,” they continued. “That article came at like an incredibly vulnerable time, like for my hair care company, for like my whole career. It just was really rough.”

However, Jonathan admitted the article made them take a look inward.

“Even though I do believe that that article was overwhelmingly untrue and done in bad faith,” they began, “there have obviously been times through my career where you're like stressed out. Or like I may have been like elbow deep in highlights and was like, ‘No, I can't talk about that right now.’ I know that there was times where I like could have been better.”

And though their first instinct was to internalize the article’s messaging, Jonathan—who will return for Queer Eye season nine alongside Antoni Porowski, Karamo Brown, Tan France and newcomer Jeremiah Brent—learned to take their time in processing their feelings.

As they put it, “I was like, ‘Oh my God, is it true? Like, am I really this bad person?’ It forced me to just like really learn how to slow down, disengage and then really love myself.”

“I think that that article made me realize like how much I'd been put in this position of like being an expert, or being perfect,” Jonathan further explained. “I'm someone who champions self-acceptance. But sometimes self-acceptance looks like having to love yourself through incredibly hard times.”