RuPaul’s Drag Race champion Yvie Oddly has admitted she doesn’t have a relationship with the show’s famous host after appearing on the most recent series.
Yvie was crowned America’s next drag superstar by RuPaul earlier this year, triumphing in the season 11 final.
And while it’s no secret that RuPaul isn’t always the warmest towards the queens competing on the show, Yvie has revealed the extent of her relationship with the drag icon.
“She said that she was proud of me and that was that,” she told Attitude magazine, noting that this recognition was “all she needed”.
Yvie continued: “[RuPaul] told the whole top four that she was proud of us and the work we’d put in, and that she was excited to see what we do.
“She, unfortunately, has to keep her distance because any connection that she makes with anybody would look like a bias. This is a reality TV competition, we’re always being seen, or seeing each other as, competitors, so she wouldn’t really talk to us a lot.”
In recent years, some Drag Race fans have admitted to feeling fatigued with the show, which has begun airing one regular series and an All Stars run every year, since its move to VH1 in the US.
Asked for her thoughts on this, Yvie admitted: “I have complex feelings, it’s beautiful how much representation queer people are getting now because of the show.
“On one hand, I would like more and more Drag Race, however I think it kind of waters down what we actually have to offer the world.
“It starts to be seen through this two-dimensional perspective of what we expect from drag, which is why I enjoyed going in and now winning this, because I’ve seen a formula building up, where if you have a lot of money and you wear something really sparkly, no matter what your back story is, the general public is going to fall in love with you. I wanted to shake that up and remind people that this art form is a queer art form.”
So far in 2019, Drag Race fans have seen Yvie Oddly winning series 11, as well as the divisive double crowning of All Stars 4, and a UK series is also set to debut in the autumn.
Read Yvie’s full interview in the new issue of Attitude magazine, out now.
