Tan France remembers tensions with his Queer Eye co-star

24 June 2026

Tan France did not like Antoni Porowski “at all” when they first met.

Tan France has opened up about his co-stars

The 43-year-old TV star became “very, very close” with Antoni after working with him for years on Queer Eye, the hit TV show, but their friendship took some time to develop.

During an appearance on the Dinner’s On Me podcast, Tan shared: “Even though he’s one of my closest friends in the world, we started out as complete strangers.

“Somebody I did not think I liked at all when I first met him, and then we became very, very close.”

Tan recalled thinking that Antoni was simply “too nice”.

Asked why he didn’t immediately take to his co-star, Tan replied: “I thought he was too nice.

“After work, I need someone to gossip with and say, ‘Hey, what that b**** said to me today’. Like, ‘Can you believe that happened?’ And I need them to say, ‘Yeah, I did hear it.’ Like, ‘Can you f****** believe she said this to me?’

“I want somebody to ‘yes, and’ me. And he was not that person.”

Tan ultimately decided to confront his co-star about the issue.

He told Antoni: “I don’t think you and I are gonna be friends and that’s such a shame.

“He was like, ‘Oh no, I’m dying to gossip. I thought that you were too nice. I didn’t like you ’cause you were too sweet’.

“I’m like, ‘Oh, I’ve been waiting for someone to b**** with.’ He was like, ‘Great. Let’s do this.’ And so we had this one evening together, which was magical and changed my life.”

Tan also recalled falling out with another unnamed Queer Eye co-star.

The fashion designer said: “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.

“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.'”