Queer Eye’s Karamo Brown has opened up a few botched cosmetic surgery experience that left him in chronic pain.
Brown, 45, told People in an article published on Tuesday, June 2, that a 2021 buccal fat removal procedure caused scar tissue to dam saliva in his cheeks from draining.
“For years, people have been, like, ‘Karamo’s had cosmetic surgery. He has a lot filler in his face,’” the fact TV star told the outlet. “I used to be like, ‘You understand what? I can’t say anything because you may’t get into fights with the trolls.’ But I used to be suffering for years in pain and nobody knew.”
Brown detailed that after salvia built up inside each of his cheeks, scar tissue would harden. “There’d be times you’d see me smile, and it was tight,” he said. “My cheeks could be big because they were stuffed with saliva, stuffed with scar tissue. I used to be within the worst pain.”
Brown, who joined Netflix’s reboot of Queer Eye in 2018, also told the outlet that he signed up for the procedure after “gaining about 70 kilos through the COVID-19 pandemic.”
He recalled of the time, “I used to be an enormous boy, and everybody online liked to inform me how much of an enormous boy I used to be. So, I used to be like, ‘OK, possibly if I slim out my face, I’ll be cute.’ It became a year-and-a-half of pain.”
The previous MTV Real World solid member added that the pain he experienced intensified after the premiere of his daytime talk show, The Karamo Show, in 2022. (It was cancelled in March after 4 seasons.)
“I might shoot six episodes a day, and there’d be times once I was filming my show that my mouth would get so dry and it might be so swollen,” he told the outlet before confirming that he lost 70 kilos in an try to mask the scar tissue’s bulge. “The more weight I lost, the less scar tissue you might see,” he explained. “The scar tissue and the saliva were still there, but because I used to be skinnier, it looked type of normal. I ended eating since it helped the sensation of not having a lot scar tissue.”
In recent months, Brown “underwent a procedure to repair his saliva glands” which removed scar tissue in his cheeks.
Brown has had a rocky 2025 in other ways, too. In February, his ex Carlos Medel confirmed his split from Brown via an Instagram post. “Although this 12 months I’m single, I still wish to be sure love is around! All my like to my family and friends, thanks for being a part of my life yet another 12 months!” Medel wrote after embarking on a romance with Brown in 2021.
Brown’s interview with People also explored his experience filming Queer Eye along with his Fab Five costars, all of whom were divided in keeping with Brown after a sexual harassment criticism was filed against him. (The show’s final season 10 premiered on January 21, and Brown was the one solid member who didn’t promote the season ahead of its premiere.)
Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski is addressing viewers who’re concerned that perceived “backstage drama” is harming the show’s healthful “vibe.” Porowski, 41, shared a series of images from the Netflix show’s tenth and final season, which premiered on Wednesday, January 21, via Instagram, encouraging fans to tune in. “It’s not about how and even that […]
Brown described the set of Queer Eye as a piece environment crammed with alleged poor behavior. “Everyone would just say, ‘Well, that’s just that person,’ as an alternative of claiming, ‘This behavior doesn’t fly in an expert environment,’” he claimed. “It impacted me negatively, consistently.”
He also says that he was cleared of any wrongdoing behind the scenes of Queer Eye.