Mornings at the Stoner house look a lot different after Queer Eye. It used to be that Queer Eye season 4 hero John Stoner's 10-year-old daughter, Lucy, would wake him up after making them both breakfast. But, now, the dad, who was once described as a "man child" by his own daughter, the youngest nominator in Queer Eye history, joins her in the kitchen.
"She likes to cook her own food," Stoner writes in an email to Refinery29, "but I get up and keep her company. She makes great French toast, bacon, over-medium eggs, cupcakes, Brussel sprouts and asparagus." And Stoner, with help from Antoni, can always make up some of his now famous apple cinnamon pancakes when Lucy, who's heading to cooking camp this summer, needs a break.
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The avid sports fan, who is better known as "Cat Suit Man" in his hometown of Kansas City, MO, says after Queer Eye he's also become a "much better skating dad now for sure." He's even getting to learn the finer details of the sport. "I picked out that we had a wobble showing our outside edges to the judges," he writes, but don't worry, it didn't affect Lucy's scores. In fact, she's won several competitions this year, according to her proud dad. We're sure both Michelle Kwan and figure skating enthusiast Jonathan Van Ness will be very happy to hear this.
Fans of the show will also be happy to hear that after opening up to Karamo about his struggles with depression, Stoner says he recommitted to seeing a therapist and taking his prescribed medication. "This allowed me to be more productive and start accomplishing more than just spending entire days off in my bedroom sitting in the dark not even turning on the TV sometimes," he says. "I was able to find my balance and feel productive doing simple things, like cleaning, off my to-do list."
Now, Stoner says, after consulting with his doctor, he's found alternative ways to manage his depression without medication. And he hopes opening up in front of the cameras about what he was going through will encourage other men to ask for help. "I am happy to share my experiences and hope that I can be an example for anyone who is on the fence about getting help to manage their depression," he says. "There is relief and life can get better."
As for those catsuits of his, Stoner can't seem to find them and he thinks he knows which Queer Eye guy might have snatched them. "If Jonathan has them," Stoner writes, "I couldn’t be happier about where they landed."