Bobby Berk Says He ‘Lost Money’ Being on Queer Eye for First 2 Seasons: ‘Paying Us Basically Nothing’

Bobby Berk is getting candid about his time on Queer Eye.

The interior design expert, 43, appeared on the latest edition of the Networth and Chill with Your Rich BFF podcast, where he discussed the ins and outs of his time on the show. As fans may recall, Berk announced his departure from the series in November 2023 after eight seasons.

Berk, who appeared on the unscripted makeover series alongside castmates Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski, and Jonathan Van Ness, recalled how he managed during the early seasons of the show.

“The first two seasons, I definitely lost money being on the show,” he said. “Because, I mean, they were paying us basically nothing.”

PEOPLE has reached out to Netflix for comment.

“And the amount of money that I was losing from not running my company and being gone because we had to move away,” he said. “We were gone for five months, and so half the year we were gone, and then we were on just constant press tours.”

It was not until season 3 and 4 that Berk said he finally “broke even.”

“To be frank, they never really paid us well. You know, compared to what they pay scripted stars, we made single digit percentage,” said Berk. “Obviously, what it did, though, was open up doors for working with brands, working with companies.”

Berk recalled that fans often got “annoyed” with the Fab Five because they were frequently “promoting brands, promoting companies, doing brand partnerships.”

“They’re like ‘Oh, we’re just so sick of this.’ And we’re like, ‘Well, girl, we don’t make money off the show. How do you think we continue to do the show?’ ” he said.

However, the former reality star said that the exposure he got was “absolutely” worth it.

“It was tough the first few seasons, but the doors that it has opened for other things — absolutely,” he said. “I mean you can’t pay for that type of exposure. We got really, really lucky to find lightning in a bottle, and the show came out, you know, right at a very defining moment in the world.”

“Donald [Trump] had just become president for the first time and people were really distraught and [at each] others’ throats,” said Berk.

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“We were this happy feeling of five gays walking into red states and getting along and meeting people in the middle and being humans instead of political affiliations. It really became a cultural phenomenon,” he continued. “I never regretted doing it.”