Queer Eye interior designer Bobby Berk has become ‘very picky’ about the type of clients he works with, and it’s due in part to a run-in with a Real Housewife Of New York star years ago.
‘Celebrities can be a pain in the a** sometimes,’ the Texas native confessed during an appearance on The Jenny McCarthy Show.
He added, ‘A lot of times there can be some that expect everything for free,’ and then went on to recount his not-so-pleasant encounter with the unnamed Housewife who he said eventually ‘stole from his store.’
Reality world! Bobby Berks, 38, has become ‘very picky’ about the type of clients he works with, and it’s due in part to a run-in with a Real Housewife Of New York star years ago
It all started out on a high note when the Housewife asked to work with Berk, who hadn’t been on television at this point.
‘I had a New York Housewife come into my store years ago in New York, and [she] was like, oh, I’m buying this new place,’ he began, which peaked McCarthy’s interest.
‘Turns out, of course, she wasn’t buying it. She didn’t even own the last one she had on the show that she said she owned. She’s like, I want you to come in and design it all. I’m gonna put you on the show. And I wasn’t on TV yet. I still kind of liked the Housewives, so I was like, oh, okay, but just so you know, I’m not doing it for free. I don’t need to do it for free. I don’t necessarily know if the Housewives is really the exposure I want anyways, so I’ll do it for you at cost. And she’s like, okay, okay, that works.’
Not so glitzy: Celebrities can be a pain in the a** sometimes,’ the Texas native confessed during an appearance on The Jenny McCarthy Show
From good to bad: The Queer Eye star claimed he made a deal with the RHONY star to be paid at a cost rate to design her new home, but she later had her husband call him and try to bully him into doing it for free
Berk maintained everything seemed to be going well, and on the up-and-up, until one day when the reality star’s husband called him and tried to bully him into doing the work for free.
‘Finally I was like, you know what? I’m not only not doing it for free, I’m not doing it anymore. I don’t need this,’ he explained.
‘She came into my store the next week when I wasn’t there and told my staff that I had said she could take anything out of the store that she wanted to design her house for the shoot and here was her credit card and if I don’t bring anything back, if I like something, you can just charge the credit card.’
It turns out his employees had no idea he wasn’t working with the RHONY star anymore, and proceeded to give her whatever she wanted,’ Berk said before adding,’ ‘She cleaned the store out.’
Oh no you didn’t: Berk said he shot down the request to do it for free and did not do the job
Freebies: Berk said the reality star came into his store the next week and told his employees she could take anything out of the store, without his knowledge
It wasn’t until many months later, when Berk was rummaging through the store’s inventory, that he realized what was missing. He confronted the employees about certain items, which they responded, ‘Oh, they’re at blah-blah-blah’s house.’
He continued: ‘And you could tell by the way they paused that they knew they had f***ed up. They knew they had been scammed. Because apparently, months went by and they called and they called and they called, and when they could not get any response, they tried to charge the card, and of course, it was declined.’
Berk later confronted the Housewife about the incident and told her she ‘literally stole’ from his store, but apparently that didn’t faze her one bit. Berk even claimed she threatened to take him to court, all in the name of TV ratings.
Confrontation: Berk said he later confronted the RHONY star and told her she stole from his store; he claimed she threatened to take the issue to court because it would be ‘good TV’
‘They said, you know what? Then let’s go to court. This’ll be good TV,’ Berk claimed.
‘It’s easier for us just to have our lawyer deal with it than it would be to actually pay you.’
In the end the encounter was a lesson well learned that, to this day, influences how he runs his business.
‘If you’re somebody in this industry, I need to really know you because when I first met this person, I was like, oh, she’s great. But I didn’t really know her,’ he told McCarthy.
And that’s why he now takes the approach of being picky when it comes to working with clients— ‘especially in Hollywood.’
Lesson learned: Berk, who has been Queer Eye design expert since 2018, now says he has to really know celebrity clients before he commits to working with them; he is pictured with his Queer Eye co-stars Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness at an event in Los Angeles in May 2019