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Some queens leave the stage before their time, choosing new paths after shining bright on "RuPaul’s Drag Race." Join us as we look at performers who stepped away from drag for personal reasons, career changes, or simply to find peace beyond the spotlight. Our lineup includes Kenya Michaels, Rebecca Glasscock, Vivienne Pinay, Princess Poppy, Ivy Winters and more!
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00:00Good morning. I didn't realize this was happening today.
00:03Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we're discussing RuPaul's Drag Race contestants who retired
00:08or stepped back from the art form for personal reasons.
00:11Where can people find you on social media, or do you want them to find you?
00:15Good question. I'm good.
00:19Kenya Michaels. As one of season four's most memorable contestants,
00:22Kenya Michaels was known for her stature, dance background, and larger-than-life personality.
00:26Although she was initially eliminated in ninth place,
00:29she returned to the competition and eventually finished in the top five.
00:42After Drag Race, however, Kenya's life took her in a very different direction.
00:46She came out as a trans woman and moved away from performing as a drag queen.
00:50I feel good. It's about an attitude. If you had an attitude, your booty move.
00:54Her decision to step back from drag has also been linked with the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando,
00:59where she had been performing on the night of the tragedy.
01:02Since then, she has become a celebrity stylist and wig designer.
01:06She's a phoenix rising from the ashes.
01:09Firebird.
01:09Rebecca Glasscock. This season one finalist has the distinction of being one of the original drag race queens.
01:15That also makes her one of its earliest retirees.
01:18I think maybe keeping to myself might have been misread as,
01:23oh, you know, she's standoffish, or, you know, she's trying to throw shade,
01:27but it's just, that's the way I am.
01:30A contestant on the show's inaugural season,
01:32Rebecca defied expectations by making it all the way to the top three,
01:36despite initially struggling in the competition.
01:38She even won the makeover challenge,
01:40helping establish her as one of the season's most formidable competitors.
01:44I want to say that I'm surprised that I won, but I'm not.
01:47I don't think any other contestant did as well as we did.
01:50After that, however,
01:52Glasscock eventually retired from drag and moved on to other pursuits.
01:55She made one notable exception,
01:57returning for the season 10 finale,
01:59when the original cast reunited to celebrate the show's anniversary.
02:03Outside drag, she has pursued work as an actor,
02:06singer, makeup artist, and flight attendant.
02:08What I did, I'm happy with,
02:11and, you know, and I just kind of want to leave it there.
02:15And a friend of mine, he's so funny, he's like,
02:18he's like, well, what if you, if you get called to do Tootsie?
02:21I say, that's a whole nother thing.
02:24Vivian Pinay.
02:25Making Drag Race Herstory isn't all it's cracked up to be.
02:28Vivian Pinay competed on season five,
02:30but her journey ended abruptly when she and Honey Mahogany
02:33became the franchise's first double elimination.
02:35I'm upset, obviously, because I want to be here to the end,
02:39but I am beautiful, and nobody can take that away from me.
02:43After the show, Vivian largely withdrew from the drag spotlight
02:46and eventually abandoned the persona altogether.
02:48Her post-drag career nonetheless kept her connected to the franchise.
02:52She worked as a personal assistant to Alyssa Edwards,
02:55while also developing expertise in wigs and hair.
02:58Vivian, if that hat would have knocked my hair off,
03:00I would have cried on Alyssa's Secret.
03:02I would have bawled for days.
03:06Vivian, did you think I was a fierce queen?
03:10Yeah.
03:10She later guested on reality TV shows like Face Off and Skin Wars.
03:15Vivian Pinay has kept a relatively low profile since her time on TV.
03:19Where do you want to go to lunch?
03:20We should go, um...
03:22We should go see a movie.
03:23You know I'm a pig and I like food, so where are we going for lunch?
03:26We should actually go to that Las Vegas buffet.
03:29Oh, that's my second guilty pleasure, a good old buffet.
03:32Princess Poppy.
03:33After competing on season 15, Princess Poppy largely withdrew from social media
03:38and explained that she wanted to step away from the pressures of fame and performing.
03:42I am very grateful for the experience.
03:44I'm glad that I did it.
03:45I'm really glad for the opportunity that it gave me.
03:48And I also now know that drag is no longer the career path that I want to do.
03:52Thanks, Drag Race.
03:53Rather than chase the visibility that usually comes with appearing on the franchise,
03:57Poppy said she wanted to, quote,
03:59fade into obscurity and explore other creative avenues.
04:02You're done with Drag Race.
04:03Now you're going to go on TLC's My Feet Are Killing Me and Pimple Popper.
04:06Oh my god, yes.
04:07I want to collab with Dr. Pimple Popper so bad.
04:10She would love me.
04:11She subsequently made one spectacular return to the spotlight at the 2024 Emmys,
04:16arriving in an elaborate Green Goblin transformation.
04:19But Poppy later reaffirmed that she intended to leave drag behind.
04:23Instead, she wanted to pursue writing, particularly screenwriting and comedy,
04:27meaning her next act would be behind the scenes rather than under the spotlight.
04:31I don't think there would be anything more iconic than like All Stars 11,
04:34the return of Princess Poppy.
04:36I think I should just quit drag.
04:38Nobody has heard of me or heard from me.
04:41I go back.
04:42I win.
04:43I win $200,000 and then I quit again.
04:46And no one hears from me ever again.
04:49Ivy Winters.
04:50Season 5's Miss Congeniality brought an unusually broad range of performance skills to the main stage.
04:55Before Drag Race, Ivy Winters had spent years working in the circus,
04:59developing talents including juggling, stilt walking, and fire performance.
05:03On the show, those abilities helped make her one of the season's most memorable queens.
05:08Now that's what I call stilettos.
05:10Being a circus queen, I decided to pull out my stilts and I did a butterfly goddess look.
05:15Fans fell in love with her.
05:17After her elimination, however, Ivy gradually moved away from professional drag.
05:21That's just so sad.
05:23I'm crying because they're all going to miss me so damn much.
05:26Rather than disappearing from the creative world altogether,
05:29she redirected her energy toward other artistic pursuits.
05:32Winters has spent her post-drag years making homemade goods and developing her gardening skills.
05:37Her retirement is less about abandoning creativity than finding different outlets for it.
05:41Living in New York, the place was so small, so actually having my own space to be able to make
05:47stuff and sew or quilt or whatever,
05:50you know, I got space to do that.
05:52Max.
05:52Max Milenafi was one of season seven's most distinctive queens,
05:56but after Drag Race, her relationship with drag became increasingly complicated.
06:00I don't know, it's just all around odd.
06:03Could have been good intentions turned into bad intentions.
06:06I super don't know, but it was a weird energy.
06:09In 2018, Max stepped away from performing, effectively disappearing from the drag scene and public eye.
06:15When she finally addressed her absence in a 2021 interview with Joseph Shepard,
06:19she explained the struggles that made it difficult to continue at the level she expected.
06:23I have to definitely put some of my anxieties also are channeled into a perfectionism or an editorial nature
06:34where I don't or can't create these things up to a certain standard or I can't create certain images so
06:40I don't post at all.
06:41Beyond that, she also expressed the desire to take a break from being a public figure.
06:45Although Max didn't describe herself as permanently retired and left open the possibility of returning,
06:50she has remained largely out of the drag spotlight since then.
06:54I feel like I've been in a dream this whole time.
06:56So for me to go back to Kansas from Oz, it's all so surreal, but there's no place like home.
07:01Pearl.
07:02Nothing you say matters unless that camera is rolling.
07:10And that broke my spirit.
07:14Wow.
07:14And that is the reason why I had one foot in, one foot out the entire time I was on
07:21that show.
07:21This popular season seven finalist has largely stepped away from drag and the drag race spotlight,
07:26although she has not framed it as a formal permanent retirement.
07:30In 2024, Pearl explained that traveling and, quote, gay fame had become overwhelming.
07:36Everything is a lot more work than you see sitting on your couch watching.
07:41And I don't know if I have that in me at this point.
07:45She described being the target of harassment, stalking, and other invasive experiences that
07:49made her increasingly uncomfortable with public life.
07:52She also expressed regret over her infamous 2018 Hey Queen interview,
07:56saying the fallout from her comments about RuPaul became disproportionately associated with her.
08:01Pearl's retreat is therefore less about abandoning her drag persona outright,
08:05and more about distancing herself from the pressures and toxicity surrounding celebrity drag.
08:10Sometimes when you're running away, you're running in the exact right direction.
08:16And that kind of stuck with me because I have changed the course of my life so many times.
08:22I've moved quite a lot.
08:24I've moved, like, from state to state.
08:26So it's fun and it's exciting.
08:28Fifi O'Hara.
08:29Few contestants have undergone a more dramatic reinvention than the artist formerly known as Fifi O'Hara.
08:35What happened to that supermodel of the world?
08:43After appearing on both Season 4 and All Stars 2,
08:46Jeremy Carey gradually moved away from the drag persona that had made him famous.
08:50In 2020, Carey officially announced that Fifi was being retired,
08:54explaining that the character had been a vehicle for his creativity,
08:57but that he no longer needed her to express his art.
09:00I don't want to be known and remembered for my character.
09:02I want to be known as Jeremy the Artist, and Fifi happened to be one of those characters.
09:07Under his given name, Jeremy continued pursuing creative projects,
09:11including music and elaborate character artwork.
09:14The decision also represented a separation from the conflicts and reputation
09:17associated with Fifi's drag race years.
09:20Today, Carey is still an artist and entertainer, but Fifi is no more.
09:24Baby, let's play.
09:29Robbie Turner.
09:30I was in a show that wanted us to go by boys' names, and I didn't want to use my
09:34own,
09:35so I was reading a book called Atonement, and Robbie Turner is a character in the book
09:40who is very moral and ethical, but spoiler alert.
09:43This Seattle-based queen was one of the more distinctive personalities on Season 8.
09:47Robbie Turner combined a glamorous old Hollywood sensibility with a love of wigs, fashion, and performance.
09:52She reached the top seven before her elimination.
09:55I guess right now I think still a little stunned.
09:57And I'll probably get back to Seattle and be like,
10:01woe is me, and eat some peaches, and that'll be okay.
10:04Her post-drag race career ultimately took a very different direction.
10:08In 2018, Turner made headlines after posting an account of an alleged car accident
10:13that was subsequently shown not to have occurred as described.
10:16She apologized publicly and expressed regret over the incident.
10:19Following the controversy, Turner largely disappeared from public view.
10:23She eventually retired from drag and has not returned to the drag race world.
10:27Unlike many queens who retire from performing,
10:30she has maintained an exceptionally low public profile since leaving the art form.
10:34I need to work, so I'll just keep doing this until it kind of dries up,
10:38and it never did.
10:40Well, soon it will.
10:41I know, soon everything dries.
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11:13Britta Filter
11:14Already a major name in New York City drag before she competed on Drag Race's 12th season,
11:20Britta announced herself as one of the city's most established performers.
11:23There are so many people in New York City that are rooting for me and want me to do a
11:28great job,
11:29and it adds so much pressure.
11:31There are so many people that are looking up to me and cheering me on,
11:35and I don't want to let anybody down.
11:37And I'm not going to let them down.
11:38I'm going to be 100% myself.
11:40Although her time on the show was overshadowed by a contentious edit and an intense fan reaction,
11:45Britta continued performing and advocating for LGBTQIA plus causes after the show.
11:50In 2026, she announced that she was retiring from drag after years of performing,
11:55citing serious back and neck problems that required surgery and a lengthy recovery.
12:00I have seven herniated discs, and I've been performing on them.
12:05I've been keeping quiet because I don't want people to not book me because this is what I do,
12:10and I do it really well.
12:11Today I found out that I have three more herniated discs in my neck.
12:15He's never seen anyone with a case this bad that is this young.
12:19Her final performance took place in July 2026.
12:23That marked the end of a particularly prolific chapter for a queen who had spent years performing
12:28virtually every night in New York.
12:30A single week, every single month, every single year, thank you for showing up for me and for listening
12:36and for coming out and for, you know, all of it, all of it.
12:42I could not have done the work that I've done within this community without any of you.
12:48Which of these queens would you love to see come back for All Stars?
12:51Tell us in the comments.
12:52Tell us in the comments.