Original Queer Eye Star Announces Retirement From TV

It's an end of an era.

Rachael Ray reunited with original Queer Eye for the Straight Guy star Kyan Douglas to look back on his record 114 appearances on her daytime television show on May 2. As the reality star put it, "I've done more episodes of Rachael Ray than I did of Queer Eye."

But Kyan is ready to put his on-screen gigs behind him, as life behind him: He announced to the audience that he'll be ending his TV career at the age of 51. "I just feel ready to move on to something else. I don't know what that is yet, but things come to an end and the universe will fill a void, so it's time to step away and see what's next for me."

Of course, this is merely his TV retirement. Kyan shared that he's open to new opportunities, even though he's loved working with Rachael on guest makeovers for the past decade.

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"I've worked for you for 13 years," he told Rachael, "and because of you and working on this show, the flexibility that it gave me, the income that it gave me, I was able to spend the last year of my mother's life with her at home. You gave that to me, so thank you so much."

Kyan and the rest of the O.G. Queer Eye stars last reunited in October 2020 to film the E! show Queer Eye For the Straight Guy: Reunion Road Trip. Carson Kressley, Thom Filicia, Tom Allen and Kyan all joined forces to celebrate Jai Rodriguez's 40th birthday and give Jai the ultimate Cinder-fella makeover.

The guys have since passed the baton to new Queer Eye stars Jonathan Van Ness, Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Bobby Berk and Karamo. And though no one will ever compare to the O.G. cast, Kyan is proud of the new crew's work: "I think the country needed another dose of Queer Eye," he told E! News, "and I'm so glad they're getting it."

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