A simple explainer about why Bobby Berk left Queer Eye and the drama surrounding the Fab Five

If you’ve watched the newest season of Queer Eye on Netflix, you might have noticed a key member of the Fab Five is missing in the form of icon Bobby Berk who has now left the show.

But Netflix never elaborated on what went down between the cast of Queer Eye that meant Bobby Berk left the Fab Five, so here’s a simple (ish) explainer about all the drama from the past season to now. Get comfy because there’s a lot to get through.

Bobby announces his departure from Queer Eye after six years and unfollows co-stars Tan France and Antoni Porowski

Bobby Berk announced his departure from Queer Eye in an Instagram post just over one year ago, writing: “It’s not been an easy decision to be at peace with, but a necessary one.”

Immediately after his announcement, he proceeded to unfollow both Tan France and Antoni Porowski on Instagram. Rumours of a feud between Bobby Berk and the rest of the Queer Eye cast members started swirling after people noticed Tan was the only member of the Fab Five who didn’t comment on his leaving post. Yikes.

It was then reported Bobby had been ‘asked to leave’ Queer Eye after ‘issues’ with the cast

A source claimed that Bobby Berk was actually “asked to leave” Queer Eye after issues with the rest of the cast, which resulted in them “resenting him.”

The source said: “There were many challenges with scheduling and there was a loss of interest from Bobby filming the show. The network and the cast thought it was time to bring in fresh blood. His heart was not in it and the rest of the cast started to resent him because of that.”

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Tan France then also unfollowed Bobby Berk after he publicly snubbed him

Tan is thought to have unfollowed Bobby after he posted a season eight Queer Eye announcement and didn’t tag Tan. Bobby tagged everyone else in the Queer Eye cast, only tagging Tan once the post had been up for a few hours.

When Bobby did eventually tag him, he didn’t tag his main account but his secondary account called @shaded, which Tan hasn’t posted to in over three years. Shady stuff.

Bobby then confirmed he and Tan had a ‘situation’ and addressed their feud

In an interview with Vanity Fair Bobby confirmed that he and Tan had “a situation” and were involved in a feud, although it wasn’t “to do with the show.”

He explained: “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.”

He also revealed the real reason why he left Queer Eye

Bobby explained the real reason why he decided to quit Queer Eye and clarified that it wasn’t to do with his feud with Tan. He explained that he and the rest of the Queer Eye cast were ready for the show to end when their seven-season contract ended in 2022.

Whilst Netflix offered them an additional four-season contract for Queer Eye, Bobby assumed that his costars would not renew the contract. He said: “We’d just assumed that the show wouldn’t come back if we all didn’t come back. I was like, I’m not going to be having FOMO cause the show is not going to happen. I had become at peace with it.

“We had mentally just prepared ourselves to move on — that’s why I left,” he said.

It’s now been over one year since the whole drama started and Jeremiah Brent has since replaced Bobby, however he and Tan still don’t follow each other on Instagram so it looks like not all the wounds have been mended.

The latest series of Queer Eye is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook.