Heidi N Closet explains why she threatened to quit Drag Race All Stars 8 after ‘very rough’ day
Heidi N Closet sensationally chose to sashay away from All Stars 8 following the Snatch Game. (World of Wonder)
RuPaul’s Drag Race fan favourite Heidi N Closet gagged fans when she threatened to quit All Stars 8 during this week’s episode of Untucked, and now she’s revealed why she almost left the season.
Fans of Drag Race’s season 12 legend Heidi N Closet were left reeling after the Miss Congeniality winner revealed her plan to leave All Stars 8, considering she is, for many, a potential winner.
Speaking to fellow contender for the crown Kandy Muse, Heidi said she was “done” with the competition and was ready to pack up her drag and go. “Y’all are in for a gag tonight, honey,” she uttered. “I’m leaving”.
Heidi and the other remaining queens had just been receiving critiques from the Drag Race judges after debuting three looks on the runway as part of the Supermarket Ball challenge. Heidi served three consecutively stunning garments, including a latex milkwoman look, a campy strawberry pants look, and a gown made out of unconventional supermarket materials.
For the majority of viewers watching at home, she was destined to be called the winner of the week’s challenge, yet the win went to Jessica Wild.
After being called ‘safe’ and sent backstage by RuPaul, she was evidently irritated – as were fans watching. However, Heidi has now revealed that it wasn’t just misguided judging that sent her spiralling towards the werkroom exit.
“That day was a very rough day, and it was a very emotional day,” Heidi told Entertainment Weekly, reflecting on her spur-of-the-moment comment about quitting. As well as the questionable judging, Heidi revealed she was “taken aback” by fellow contestant Mrs Kasha Davis being told to sashay away that week.
“I was very hurt by that, too. They didn’t show how close me and Kasha got, I was walking around calling her auntie and stuff. It was just a rough day,” she explained.
During the episode, fans watched as Heidi N Closet got emotional while talking to RuPaul about her grandmother, who passed away shortly after her original season aired in 2020. Opening up about the years that have followed since her death, Heidi revealed that her family have struggled with losing the person who held them all together.
The loss was also part of the reason she felt she couldn’t continue with All Stars 8 anymore.
“We go to Drag Race, we lose our support system that we’re so accustomed to, that was weighing on me, there was a lot going on with my family around the time I left as well, because we’d lost my grandmother two years prior, and my family had been really struggling,” she shared.
“The last time I was with my entire family, a gun got pulled out… It’s been quite the struggle there. We get [to Drag Race], it’s just a pressure cooker in the competition and a long day of filming, late nights working on stuff… it was just overwhelming.”
As fans of the show know, Heidi ultimately decided to stick it out and continue on with the competition, explaining that she felt she still had a “little more” to show.
With a comedy challenge and the legendary “Snatch Game” still to come, there’s certainly time for Heidi to turn her fortune around, bag a challenge, and take the crown.
RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars continues on Fridays on Paramount+ in the US and on WoW Presents Plus in the UK and internationally.
