By Rebecca Davison for MailOnline
Published: 14:43 BST, 24 June 2019 | Updated: 14:43 BST, 24 June 2019
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He's one fifth of Netflix's makeover show Queer Eye and Tan France appeared on This Morning on Monday to promote his new book: Naturally Tan: A Memoir.
During the show, the 36-year-old revealed the colour of his skin was way more of an issue for him than his sexuality when he was growing up as a boy in Yorkshire.
He said: 'It was colour, yeah. When you are in a community where there aren’t that many people of colour you have to kind of pick your battles.
Tough: Queer Eye's Tan France told This Morning on Monday that it was a struggle to 'stay alive and be brown' growing up in Yorkshire and revealed he was RETIRED before joining the show
'Do I focus on being gay or do I focus on being brown? And every day it was just a struggle to stay alive and be brown.'
He admitted he feels a lot of pressure to represent other gay Asian men.
He said: 'I’m one of the first openly gay South-Asian men on such a major platform, Netflix. And so you do feel the responsibility.
He said: 'Whenever one of my cast mate speaks its just Antoni Porowski or Bobby Berk, but with me in the press, it’s always Asian Immigrant Tan France'
Adding: 'I’m one of the first openly gay South-Asian men on such a major platform, Netflix. And so you do feel the responsibility'
Queer Eye sees (L-R) Jonathan Van Ness, Bobby Berk, Tan, Antoni Porowski and Karamo Brown making over people's lives in a bid to make them feel better about
