Queer Eye Star Opens Up About Hitting Rock Bottom: Jonathan Van Ness

The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

FlightStory

Society & Culture, Business, Education

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 June 2023

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this new episode Steven sits down with hairdresser, television personality, and ‘Queer Eye’s’ grooming expert, Jonathan Van Ness. Jonathan began his career as a hairdresser, however in 2013 while giving a haircut he captured the attention of a creator for the comedy video website, ‘Funny Or Die’. This was the start of Jonathan’s hit ‘Gay of Thrones’ web series which was nominated three times for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Variety Series. In 2018, Jonathan was catapulted into fame as the grooming expert in the Netflix series ‘Queer Eye’. Since 2015, he has hosted a weekly podcast, ’Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness’, and in 2019 he released his New York Times best-selling memoir, ‘Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love’. In 2021, Jonathan launched ‘JVN Hair’, a gender inclusive, sustainable, cruelty-free haircare brand. In this conversation Jonathan and Steven discuss topics, such as: Jonathan’s intense childhood His drug and sex addiction His journey into sex work and how he lost control of his life The challenges he has faced with rapid fame The increasing transphobia and attack on trans people in the US You can purchase all of Jonathan’s ‘JVN’ hair products, here: https://bit.ly/3CyBBdK Follow Jonathan: Instagram: https://bit.ly/3CzC6UG YouTube: https://bit.ly/3pcXdZR TikTok: https://bit.ly/3JhaOX9 Follow me: https://beacons.ai/diaryofaceo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think it's actually still kind of hard for me to talk about but I am down to go there.
0:04.4	Your square chin makes me feel safe.
0:06.4	Jonathan Van Ness!
0:09.4	A comedian and beauty stylist you know from queer eye.
0:13.4	What are necessary?
0:15.3	The conversation starts on a cornfield and rural Illinois.
0:20.0	Being a queer, feminine child is hard.
0:23.2	There was sexual abuse and there was bullying,
0:25.5	but all that trauma came back into the most self-destructive era.
0:28.6	Had my face and a plate of Coke,
0:30.2	then I discovered sex work.
0:31.7	I got HIV. I put myself in so many really dangerous situations
0:34.8	someone pulled a gun on you uh huh take me into that moment.
0:38.0	We start up hairdresser and now your name is on the marquee of Radio City.
0:43.0	Schedule's been crazy.
0:45.0	How are you feeling?
0:46.0	Grateful and at the same time, I'm really frustrated.
0:48.0	I just see so much transphobic garbage all over the place.
0:51.0	People really think that there's little kids going to school as a boy
0:54.1	and coming home as a girl.
0:55.3	This is really serious and so this has been a really hard time.
0:58.8	And I think being a public figure who is constantly expected to be a ray of
	...

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