Sean Hayes Recalls “Will & Grace” Cast Receiving 'Death Threats' and Hate Mail — Even from 1 Fan Who Loved the Show

The Emmy winner said he and his costars received a letter from a woman who claimed they "should be ashamed for putting this on television," but later admitted in her note, "I love the show"

Sean Hayes is looking back on the distressing messages he and his Will & Grace costars used to receive when the show was on the air.

During the May 27 episode of Hayes’ SmartLess podcast with co-hosts Jason Bateman and Will Arnett, the Will & Grace star, 53, revealed to Bateman, Arnett and guest Trevor Noah that he and his former sitcom castmates would receive death threats at the start of the series.

The Emmy-winning sitcom first premiered in 1998 on NBC and focused on friendships between a group of four friends — which included two gay men, Eric McCormack as Will Truman and Hayes as Jack McFarland. The two starred alongside Debra Messing (who played Grace Adler) and Megan Mullally (who played Karen Walker).

“On the beginning of Will & Grace, we used to get death threats all the time,” Hayes revealed on the podcast, which led Arnett, 54, to jokingly ask if the threats were due to the “s---ty jokes or...?”

Hayes instantly burst into laughter and then identified one particular unusual letter the cast had received, noting how it was “one of the greatest letters we ever got,” and quickly clarified for his co-hosts that it wasn’t a death threat.

Related: The Cast of 'Will & Grace': Where Are They Now?

“This woman wrote in to Will & Grace, took the time, got a pen, paper, wrote it, got a stamp, mailed it. Remember this was before the internet and everything. It’s a lot of effort to really share with someone how much you hate them,” Hayes began.

“This one woman wrote in and she said, ‘You’re all going to hell. You should be ashamed for putting this on television. You’re all horrible people. But I love the show, I just don’t like what it’s about,'" he recalled.

Bateman, 55, then joked, “And could you send me an 8 x 10?” with Arnett adding, “Can I get some tickets for the April 12 show?”

“It was the craziest thing,” Hayes said, as Arnett added, “That’s so f---ing crazy.”

The May 27 episode was not the first time Hayes revealed that the NBC cast received alarming mail.

“We would get death threats to the show and I was scared,” he told The Guardian in 2018. “I didn’t have the tools at such a young age to deal with the ramifications of coming out as gay in a huge public way.”

“But wisdom comes with age,” he added. “And you realize, ‘Oh, I was doing more damage in not coming out sooner. I should have been more fearless, like my character.’”

Related: Eric McCormack on How He Got 'Closer' with Sean Hayes Years After Losing Touch Post-'Will & Grace' (Exclusive)

The series ran for nearly 200 episodes and eight seasons. It came to a conclusion in 2006; it was then rebooted 11 years later in 2017 for a three-season revival.

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Will & Grace and the reboot series are both available to stream on Peacock and Hulu. 

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