RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 star Arrietty responds to uproar over ‘disgusting’ mirror message

RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 star Arrietty has responded to major fan uproar over a message she left for her season sister Onya Nurve.

Last week’s episode saw Californian queen Arrietty sashay away after flunking in the “Villains Roast” challenge, despite secretly stealing jokes from her co-star, Jewels Sparkles.

Upset with where Jewels had placed her in the roast line-up, Arrietty got her own back by taking the jokes from Jewels, leading to the two of them flopping the challenge and having to lip-sync.

Behind the scenes in Untucked, tensions simmered as the two queens hashed out their drama, with fellow contestant Onya Nurve leaping to Jewels’ defence.

In a teaser for episode 11, acting challenge “Ross Mathews vs. The Ducks”, the drama continues – despite Jewels and Arrietty quashing their beef and the latter being sent home.

Ruturning to the Werk Room, the queens gathered to read Arrietty’s lipstick mirror message to her competitors, and discovered that Arrietty used her final send-off to take a personal swipe at Onya.

“As one smelly b***h to another, Onya, please brush your teeth,” Arrietty wrote on the mirror.

Evidently upset and tearing up, Onya confirmed that she has a medical condition which means she has “bad breath”. She’d decided to only share the fact with just a few of her fellow queens.

“I would never have said anything like that to any of y’all,” Onya wept. “For her to come for something that I’m super insecure about…”

I think the worst part is that Onya CLEARLY did not want her health condition discussed on national TV and Arrietty gave her no choice in that…….. pic.twitter.com/MFGR65O52E

— ✨itssKeonLuv 2025 Era ✨ (@it55K3onCh0mps) March 13, 2025

Onya’s fellow queens shared their shock, with Lexi Love calling it a “low dig”. Onya herself said Arrietty “deserved to go home” because she’s a “hateful ass b***h”.

After the teaser dropped, the Drag Race fandom erupted with outrage at the lipstick remark.

“Arrietty’s exit has got to be the one of the worst displays of sportsmanship this show has seen in a long time, if not ever. My God,” wrote one fan online.

“Never in 17 seasons of watching Drag Race have I ever been so appalled… Stealing jokes is one thing but THIS. Not a fan anymore, very disappointed in Arrietty,” another shared.

Others dubbed the message “disgusting” and “nasty”.

Yet Arrietty has decided to address the furore upfront, writing in a post on X/Twitter: “Onya and I are gucci. We’ve already had our talk in person and hashed it out. I love onya. Period.”

Onya and I are gucci. We’ve already had our talk in person and hashed it out. I love onya. Period. 🫶🏼

— Messy Spaghetti (@Arrietty_TheElf) March 13, 2025

In response to a fan comment about Arrietty making fun of a medical condition, the queen added: “I genuinely never knew about her condition, she never told me. Whether ya’ll believe me or not, I wouldn’t write something like that if she opened up to me about it.”

I genuinely never knew about her condition, she never told me. Whether ya’ll believe me or not, i wouldn’t write something like that if she opened up to me about it.

— Messy Spaghetti (@Arrietty_TheElf) March 14, 2025

In an Instagram Live, Arrietty responded after being told to “apologise” in the comment section: “To who? I think y’all need to understand. My relationships have nothing to do with y’all. If I apologise to someone, it’s going to be to them. It’s not going to be online, because for me, that does not seem genuine.”

She continued: “And I don’t give a f**k if ya’ll know if I’ve apologised or not. How about that?”

In a separate comment on Instagram, Arrietty shared an apology, writing: “I love you @onyanurve. We’ve already had our talk in person. But I’ll say it again. I’m sorry.”

Onya responded with a simple “Love you sis,” confirming that the queens are thankfully on good terms again. Everybody say love!

RuPaul’s Drag Race season 17 continues on Fridays on MTV in the US on WOW Presents Plus internationally.

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