Kermit has had a frog in his throat since the beloved Muppet’s voice actor, Steve Whitmire, was fired — and he claims it was without warning.

Whitmire, 57, was the only voice of Kermit in the last 27 years, following Jim Henson’s death, but his performance wasn’t well-received by Henson’s family.

“Steve is very difficult to work with and it’s been many years of being difficult, particularly for the producers,” Henson’s daughter, Cheryl, fumed to NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday. “He’s not Kermit. He’s a performer, who was hired to do Kermit. There’s a difference.”

Cheryl had previously complained that Whitmire’s “performance of Kermit has strayed far away from my father’s good-hearted, compassionate leader of the Muppets … Steve performed Kermit as a bitter, angry, depressed victim … Worst of all, in the past few years he had not been … funny or fun.”

Whitmire adamantly denied ruining the character, placing the blame on producers. Still, Whitmire admitted that the complaints of him never using an understudy were true, and also confessed that he toad — er, toed — the line in terms of his interactions with his fellow Muppets staff.

“My goal was always to try to serve what was best for the Muppets,” Whitmire insisted to “Today.” “It always has been. That’s sort of the filter I put everything through. So that’s where I was headed, and I gave notes, but nobody was yelling and screaming. I don’t know why they didn’t give me an ultimatum, and say, ‘Look, this is a problem, we feel that this is a problem, and if you keep doing this, we’re going to get rid of you.’”

He also noted, “Jim Henson’s creative spirit doesn’t reside in a puppet. It’s in my heart and my mind and the things that I know. So, unfortunately for the fans and for Disney, I’m kind of taking him with me.”

Kermit’s new voice actor, Matt Vogel, is scheduled to debut this week.