Karamo Brown Didn’t Speak to His Father for a Decade After the ‘Queer Eye’ Star Came Out

If you grew up as a '90s baby, chances are you've grown up with Karamo Brown on your screen. In the early 2000s, he was a reality TV newbie, starring on Season 15 of The Real World, The Real World: Philadelphia. The season shot Karamo into superstardom, allowing him to take on other reality TV projects, including TV One's The Next 15, and hosting gigs with Access Hollywood Live, HLN's Dr. Drew On Call and MTV's Are You the One? Second Chances.

Eventually, Karamo's star shined even brighter when he joined Netflix's Queer Eye as a host in 2018. Soon after gaining his second wave of fame, he landed his own talk show, Karamo, in 2022, becoming Maury Povich's successor. How's that for a resume??

To flex even further, Karamo got to where he is today by living his life authentically and out loud. However, the TV personality has shared how doing so has affected his interpersonal relationships, including the ones he has with his parents.

Here's what Karamo has said about his family.

Karamo was born on Nov. 2, 1980 in Houston, Texas. He was born to his mother, Charmaine Brown, and his biological father, Bernell Brown. Though Karamo was given his father's last name, he shared that he was raised by his stepfather, who became more of a parental figure to him as he grew up. Although there isn't much public information about his stepfather, the daytime host has opened up about their relationship.

In 2019, during his time on Dancing With the Stars, Karamo honored his stepfather with a dance that signified the ups and downs of their relationship. According to Us Weekly, he danced the samba to The Lion King's "I Just Can't Wait to be King." After the performance, Karamo shared how the dance made him emotional as he thought about how he and his father had been estranged after he came out as gay.

“Growing up, my father was my hero," he said in an interview with People. "He called me his champion son. But then, as I started to discover who I am, things changed dramatically. When I was 17 going on 18, I told him that I was gay. Our relationship ended. It split the family apart and we didn’t speak for 10 years."

“I just prayed everyday that one day, we could actually get back to being a family again,” Karamo added.

The Netflix star went on to say that he eventually received the acceptance from his stepfather that he wanted when he “reached out to me and was looking to apologize for what had happened. And we really just started to reconcile our relationship.” Since then, they've seemingly been on track, though Karamo rarely shows his parents on his public social media platforms. However, in 2019, he appeared on The Steve Harvey Show to try and set his mom, Charmaine, up on a date.

Karamo has said that mending his relationship with his stepfather helped him with his relationship with his two sons, Jason and Christian. According to his interview with Parents, he found out he was a father to his son, Jason, 10 years after he was born via a child support subpoena. Karamo then received full custody of Jason and later adopted Jason's half-brother, Christian.