Drag Race UK eliminated queen on why her exit ‘made sense’ ahead of final three

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season five has given another contestant the chop, but the queen in question has spoken of their surprise that there was any bottom two at all in the most recent episode.

In the 16 November episode, the five remaining competitors had to take on the infamously tough “drag family resemblance” challenge. This time, they had to makeover volunteers from UK charity, Switchboard LGBT+ helpline.

While Michael Marouli was awarded their second RuPeter badge after impressing the judges the most, it was DeDeLicious and Kate Butch who wound up in the bottom two, with the judges feeling underwhelmed by Kate’s Grease inspired looks.

Ultimately it was Kate who ended up sashaying away, much to fan fury.

Speaking to PinkNews and other media following the shock elimination, Kate revealed that while they knew it was their time to go, they were surprised there was a bottom two that episode at all – and that DeDeLicious almost threw in the towel when it came to the lip-sync.

“It’s always a difficult episode to get to grips with and I did think maybe, because it was for charity, they might give us a little bit of a reprieve, maybe a little double shantay,” Kate explained of the makeover challenge.

“It is what it is, and I’m really happy with the outfits and the storyline and the message behind it that we presented,” she added, but admitted that her look was probably the “worst” when it came to execution.

“But I think everyone else was great. I don’t know whether DeDeLicious should have even been in the bottom. There shouldn’t have been a bottom two. They should have [said]: ‘Kate, you weren’t great. But hey, ho, there’s lovely charity people, we’ve had a lovely episode, it’s been very nice. Everyone stays! Let the music play!”

While Drag Race UK fans were unconvinced that Kate should have even been in the bottom, they were even more unconvinced about her losing the lip-sync.

However, Kate divulged some behind-the-scenes tea, sharing that DeDeLicious almost let her win the lip-sync on purpose.

“Me and DeDeLicious knew that we were the bottom two. She came up to me and she was like, ‘This is my third time in the bottom. I wanted to win this challenge. I’m feeling really down about it. I’ll let you have it.’”

Ever the graceful queen, Kate said that they instructed DeDeLicious to not give up, despite how generous the offer was.

“I looked away and I looked back and she had a big pair of scissors and she was cutting up her dress so she could do the splits. [I was like] ‘OK, so you’ve got some confidence back in you. All right, good for me.’”

Regardless of how the episode panned out, the fan favourite queen added that they had a feeling that they were going to go home this episode. 

“I’d kind of worked out that the challenge after the makeover would be some kind of stand up, roast type thing, and it is a roast next week. I thought, if I get onto that, I will probably do quite well, and then I will be in the final three,” they theorised.

“That that kind of didn’t make sense, given the trajectory that I’d had and the critiques and how I’ve been doing on the challenges.

“It’s not my time to be in the final three, so it makes sense for me to go home now.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season five continues on Thursday 23 November on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer.