Netflix’s Fab Five is getting a little less Fab … one less Fab to be exact. In November, Queer Eye’s resident interior-design expert, Bobby Berk, announced he’d be leaving the show. Following the premiere of his final season Wednesday, Berk is finally sharing why he was the only cast member to leave.
In a Vanity Fair profile published Thursday, Berk explained that his departure was mostly a contractual matter. All of the castmates (Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, and Jonathan Van Ness) signed a seven-cycle contract that wrapped up in September 2022, he said. But when Netflix reportedly renewed the series last-minute in the fall of 2023 — partially due to the actor and writers strikes — Berk was the only one not to sign back on. (The Cut has reached out to Netflix for comment and will update this post when we hear back.)
“There were definitely emotions. But each one of us had our reasons why we did what we did … I can’t be mad — for a second I was,” Berk said. “All the plans that I had made when I thought we weren’t coming back, I just wasn’t willing to change those. I would have had to pump the brakes on multiple other projects that are already in process. We had mentally just prepared ourselves to move on — that’s why I left.”
Berk also addressed rumors that he and France had been feuding. Last fall, according to Vanity Fair, fans noticed that Berk had unfollowed France on Instagram, and that he’d stopped tagging France in group photos of the Fab Five. We’ve also reached out to France for comment, though France declined to comment to Vanity Fair through a spokesperson.
“Tan and I had a moment. 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,” Berk said. “Should I have unfollowed Tan? No. Maybe I should have just muted him. But that day, I was angry, and that’s the end of it. We became like siblings — and siblings are always going to fight.”
I’m not sure the sibling squabbles will be the same without Berk, but viewers will have to manage. Though Netflix will be replacing Berk with some other cast member with (I’m assuming) immaculate taste, that person is going to have some pretty big shoes — and unkempt homes — to fill.