‘The Bachelor’: Karamo Brown of ‘Queer Eye’ Is Open to Being the First Gay Bachelor

Karamo Brown of Queer Eye is newly single and a fan of the Bachelor franchise. The reality TV star was engaged to Ian Jordan, but the two recently split. In an interview with Us Weekly, Brown revealed that he would be open to finding love on The Bachelor.

Karamo Brown and his fiancé broke up

While on The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Sept. 25, Brown revealed that he and Jordan amicably split. He told guest host Stephen “tWitch” Boss that neither partner cheated and that the two are still friends and support one another.

“It was postponed because of the pandemic,” Brown said of their wedding. “… but now it’s actually postponed officially, because my fiancé and I, we were together for 10 years, and we broke up about three and a half months ago.”

He continued, “We were distracted by so much — with the kids, and our careers — that during that time, I had to really say, ‘How is our communication? How are other parts of our lives? Are we growing in the same place?'”

Because the two had been together for so long, Brown said they tried couples counseling to make the relationship work.

“We’re not 20 anymore, so it wasn’t just, ‘Oh, I’m not going to text you anymore’ — it was like, we have a family and a home,” said Brown. “How do we separate this? And it was hard. We went to virtual counseling, we did a lot of things. But eventually, I was like, ‘This is a moment where I need to decide, is my happiness important?’ And once I made that decision, I said, you know, ‘We are going to have to break up.'”

Karamo Brown on being on ‘The Bachelor’

Right now, the Bachelor franchise is not known for its diversity. However, Brown would not turn down being the lead on The Bachelor.

“We can go for it. Let’s try it. I would … Why not?” Brown told Us Weekly. “Let me tell you something: what I’ve learned right now — and I tweeted this the other day — is that dating is a mess.”

He continued, “So, if I could just get a whole bunch of great guys in one room and just to, like, go through, sign me up.”

Diversity on ‘The Bachelor’

Over the past few years, fans, contestants, and past leads have criticized the franchise for its lack of diversity. Earlier this year, Matt James was cast as the first Black lead on The Bachelor, and his season is currently filming.

Executive producers also issued a statement vowing to bring more diversity to the franchise, saying:

“We are excited to move forward with both Matt James as the new Bachelor and Clare Crawley as our next Bachelorette. We acknowledge our responsibility for the lack of representation of people of color on our franchise and pledge to make significant changes to address this issue moving forward. We are taking positive steps to expand diversity in our cast, in our staff, and most importantly, in the relationships that we show on television. We can and will do better to reflect the world around us and show all of its beautiful love stories.

-The Executive Producers”

While producers are taking the initial steps of improvement, there has also been very little LGBTQ representation on The Bachelor. If Brown was ever cast as the lead on the show, he would become the franchise’s first gay Bachelor.