France shared that he got into a tense exchange with a colleague over his coming out journey
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NEED TO KNOW
- Tan France recalled a tense exchange with a Queer Eye costar during the show’s early years
- The series alum shared on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner’s on Me podcast that he got into an argument with a colleague over his decision to not be “out to my family” until before the show
- “‘You have no idea what my experience is as a queer Muslim, a queer brown person, a queer immigrant,'” France said of what he told his costar
Tan France had a tense exchange with a Queer Eye costar who "found out that I wasn't out to my family" before the series' debut — and he's recalling the impactful conversation they had at the time.
The series alum, 43, revealed during the Tuesday, June 23 episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Dinner's on Me podcast that he got into it with a colleague in the show's early years over his personal coming out journey. France previously shared that he came out to his family days before the hit reality series premiered on Netflix in 2018.
"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," he recalled, adding that the costar "basically" said he was "kind of a traitor to us on the show if you're not out."
"'How can you be on Queer Eye and not be singing it from the rooftops?'" France recalled of what his costar asked him. "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 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.'"
Credit: Dominik Bindl/Getty
As France put it, he was "navigating something so different to everybody else at the time," which "felt really heavy."
"But once my family accepted it and understood it, now they're a huge part of my life," he said. "They love my husband, they love my kids. We are so close again."
France shares two kids with husband Rob France, 47, whom he wed in 2007. Queer Eye launched in 2018 with an original lineup of France, Antoni Porowski, Bobby Berk, Jonathan Van Ness and Karamo Brown.
Berk was eventually replaced on the show in season 9 with Jeremiah Brent. PEOPLE has reached out to reps for Netflix, Porowski, Berk, Van Ness and Brown for comment.
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France previously detailed his coming out journey on Sirius XM's The Julia Cunningham Show in 2025, sharing that he was encouraged to talk to his family after initially imagining Queer Eye as just "a tiny show that only the gays watched." Of course, the rebooted series went on to be a massive hit and lasted 10 seasons on Netflix, concluding in 2026.
“They were just in complete shock that I would be so public with anything because I’d never said I wanted to be an entertainer — ’cause I didn’t,” France previously said of his family. “And, so, yeah, they were in complete shock. And then they watched the show, and they’re like, ‘Oh, we can get behind this. You’re just being yourself on TV. Like, we know this version of you.'”
During the final season's credits earlier this year, France reflected on what Queer Eye meant to him.
"The fact that I've gotten to do this for 10 years gives me so much pride," he said. "Every one of us knows somebody that needs love, support, kindness, community… I really hope that if you take nothing else away, no french tuck, no coordination, no pattern, no print, I hope that the one thing you take away is kindness for people around you. Really understanding that the world is so much greater than ourselves."
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