Karamo Brown has learned that coparenting takes compromise.
The Queer Eye personality, 43, shares son Jason, 27, with ex Stephanie Brooks. He also adopted Brooks’ son Chris, 23, who is Jason’s half-brother, in 2010. Brown and Brooks will have candid conversations about their coparenting dynamic on the new season of Brown’s eponymous talk show, Karamo.
“We do a ‘Coparenting On Lock’ series where we talk about our journey. Anybody who knows me, knows my journey to fatherhood was very unique,” Brown exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, September 18. “And so for us to talk about how we deal with it is a beautiful thing.”
While Brown and Brooks make coparenting work through “a lot of communication and always remembering to put the kids first,” it doesn’t mean they always agree.
“She and I talk about, in our series, the fact that I don’t believe it’s appropriate to smoke weed or drink with our children, who are of age — and in the city we live in in California, it’s legal — [whereas] she believes it is,” Brown said. “Every time I talk about this, [some] people are like, ‘I agree with her,’ and some people agree with me, but I think there’s a boundary set with what you do with your kids. And she’s like, ‘No, if they want to do it, I would rather be there doing it with them.’”
Brown explained that while he and Brooks might have different rules about smoking and drinking with their sons, he focuses on making sure Jason and Chris understand there are “consequences” that come with such behaviors.
“Even though your mother feels comfortable in doing that with you, there’s still a boundary in my house that you can never break. And just know that if you step out in the world when doing that, though it might be legal, there could be consequences,” he said. “And if you fall into those consequences after this warning, know you’re an adult and on your own. And so that’s the boundary set [that] we agreed upon.”
Brown previously opened up about the complicated emotions he felt after being subpoenaed for child support when Jason was 10, marking his first time hearing of his son’s existence.
“I came out at 16 years old as a proud, gay man. My last girlfriend in high school — when I was 15 — became pregnant with my child but did not tell me,” he told Parents.com in August 2023. “I was confused, sad, angry and weirdly excited to be a dad, but felt lost nonetheless. … We were both kids and I don’t blame [Stephanie] for the decision she made, because the choice was not hers, it was the adults around us.”
Whether he’s talking about parenting, his sexuality or mental health, frank conversations are Brown’s forte. The television personality told Us he’s an “open book” and hopes to be in the talk show game for years to come.
“I got to get to that season 10,” said Brown, whose talk show is currently in its third season. “Can we be here in 10 years? Can we, please?”
Brown also joked that his sons are “used to” him sharing his personal life on television.
“I’ve been running my mouth forever,” he said. “I’ve been that way forever. I just run my mouth.”
Karamo airs weekdays, check your local listings.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi