Queer Eye is back with its third season, and — along with transforming the lives of their subjects and making us cry — the Fab Five are sharing some new details about their own lives. In the second episode of the new season, everyone’s favourite avocado-loving foodie, Antoni Porowski, reveals that he has struggled with addiction in the past.
The episode focuses on Joey, a camp counsellor who wants to reconnect with his young son. While Antoni and Joey are talking about Joey’s approach to cooking, Joey shares that he used to cook for his son. When Antoni asked why he stopped, Joey shares, “I was drinking a lot, and that resulted in some serious problems.”
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Antoni then reveals that he can relate. “I have a very intimate relationship with addiction, and I know what it’s like,” he says. “It seems like it’s something that you’ve been able to overcome.” “I have no regrets about putting drinking behind me,” Joey responds.
Later, while Antoni teaches Joey to make a porchetta, the two discuss addiction again. Antoni says that while he was struggling with addiction, food was a source of positivity.
"When my life was a complete mess, when I was trying to come out of it, food was always a way where I kind of made myself feel better,” he says. “I know we touched on where you’ve come from in dealing with addiction. I don’t know about you, but I didn't care about myself, so I definitely didn't care about anybody else. When I came out of it, it was suddenly like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm getting up early in the morning: not because I'm up from the night before, but because I genuinely want to.'"
While he hasn't shared the details of his addiction, Antoni also mentioned it in an interview with Vulture last year. While talking about his love for the novel A Little Life by Hanya Yanighara, he said, “It forced me to look at some aspects of growing up that I chose to put away, but it was done so beautifully that it made it okay to start thinking about it again. Basically, it deals with addiction and some of the emotional abuse in there as well. Those were things I could relate to on a pretty personal level.”