Chef Stuart O’Keeffe recently revealed that he was supposed to be in ‘Queer Eye’ alongside Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, Tan France, and Jonathan Van Ness, but was unexpectedly replaced by Antoni Porowski.
In an episode of the podcast Don’t Let It Stu on Wednesday, the 42-year-old Irish celebrity chef recalled:
“I actually got chosen. I was in one group of five, there was another group of five, which Antoni was in. They came in [and said to my group], ‘You’re the Fab Five.’ We all went outside the room, screaming, jumping up and down. I was like, ‘Let’s get a photograph. This is such a great moment for us.'”
However, a week had already passed, and he still hadn’t received a contract and more details about the show, which, at the time, was set to begin filming in a month. Meanwhile, O’Keeffe didn’t think much of it, and even had a celebratory dinner with Brown, Berk, and Van Ness.
Thereafter, he claimed to being called in for another audition, “and two days later, I get pulled out and Antoni gets pulled in.”
As for the production’s excuse as to why he was pulled out from the reality series, the chef and food writer revealed:
“My agent called me, he’s like, ‘Look, I know this sounds totally kind of sh*tty, but they said that you kind of have done too much stuff.’ I had a cookbook out and I’d done multiple shows before, where the other four hadn’t. So they were like, they kind of want everybody on the same level.”
But wait, THERE’S MORE to the story!
He allegedly found out about being replaced via an Instagram post…
“And then the production company called me, they were like, ‘We’re really sorry. We didn’t know the assistant was going to post this video.’ I was like, ‘I’m fine. I’ll just like cry for the next year,'” O’Keeffe further shared.
You can watch the podcast’s full episode here:
Moreover, O’Keeffe is known for his appearance in Food Network’s ‘Private Chefs of Beverly Hills’, as well as ‘Stuart’s Kitchen’, among other TV shows.
Sources: ew.com, en.wikipedia.org
