Tim Gunn Not Returning To ‘Project Runway’ Revival With Heidi Klum, Says He Was “Devastated, Then Kind Of Humiliated” Not Being Asked Back

It’s auf wiedersehen to Tim Gunn as the long-time Project Runway mentor was not asked back for the show’s revival. Freeform, Disney+, and Hulu didn’t make it work for Gunn and will not co-host the show alongside Klum when it returns.

In a new interview, Gunn revealed he was not asked back to mentor the designers in the competition reality series.

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Gunn told People he and Klum had been exchanging text messages about the show’s revival, which he expressed interest in returning to co-host. However, when Klum asked Gunn about his contract, he told her he hadn’t received one yet.

“So I called my agent and he knew things were going on, but he contacted the executive producers of this new show, and they said, ‘We don’t want him.’ And [my agent] said, ‘Well, he’s done 19 seasons of Runway, 16 with Heidi. The two of them won an Emmy together as hosts, and now you’re going to separate them?’ And they said yes,” Gunn said.

“So I wasn’t asked back,” he added.

Gunn mentioned that his agent was contacted about having the fashion consultant make “a small cameo in one episode,” adding, “What do I do? Wave from a bus? As the designers are going into Mood [Fabrics]? Heidi comes to see me at the retirement home and we play croquet? So no thank you. And as Heidi would say, you’re either in or you’re out. And I’m out. So I wasn’t asked to join.”

Gunn noted that he was initially “devastated, then kind of humiliated” about not being asked back, adding, “I thought, how lucky am I to have had the experiences that I’ve had over the last 20 years? This is phenomenal. I stopped the boohooing. I thought, it’s really throwing hubris in the face of an angry God to mourn not being on this new show. So I’ve come to terms with it.”

Project Runway premiered in 2004 on Bravo with Klum as host and judge of the competition series and Gunn as a mentor to the contestants. Klum and Gunn became the faces of the franchise, starring in the first 16 seasons of the show. The duo left the series after the show moved from Lifetime, back to Bravo following Season 16.

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