The Vivienne has disclosed that she had to flee the nation because to a major drug addiction that nearly killed her.
The 30-year-old Welsh drag queen won the inaugural season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2019 and is presently competing for the Dancing on Ice crown this weekend.
Doctors were concerned that The Vivienne might die from ketamine addiction years before she became famous.
She was admitted to the hospital three times in a single month.
When she appeared on Drag Race, The Vivienne revealed that, despite being sober for two years, she had been ingesting ketamine as ‘breakfast, lunch, and supper’ at the depths of her addiction.
‘I could have three bags of it just putting my face on. I did it on and off for four years,’ she has now said.
‘I was getting evicted from apartments, I had no money,’ she told The Mirror.
During this time, in 2017, The Vivienne decided to go to Gran Canaria after being addicted to drugs while working in Liverpool’s party scene.
‘Some guys I knew from Gran Canaria… asked me to do a gig in Pride,’ she recalled.
‘I did it, I was there for a week, and I felt like myself and I hadn’t touched anything for a week.’
Her relocation to Spain allowed her to take a step back from the habits that had taken over her life in the UK – and that had physicians growing concerned about her health – after she sought therapy from an NHS clinic in Liverpool.
The manager of the Liverpool club, Superstar Boudoir, where The Vivienne worked, Kevin Kirby, claimed he was aware of her drug issues, but they never interfered with her employment.
While he ‘didn’t want her to go’ when she said she was moving overseas, he ‘respected the reasons she was departing’.
‘She had to leave the scene at the time when she did otherwise she wouldn’t have been where she is now,’ he added.
‘She took a massive pay cut to go over there, was able to sort herself out and there’s been no stopping her since.’
After falling during the group solo performance on Dancing on Ice last week, the drag queen lifted herself up and dusted herself off before continuing to skate.
This weekend, The Vivienne will compete in the grand final against Nile Wilson and Joey Essex, with one more chance to wow the judges and win the crown.
Dancing On Ice airs on Sunday at 6:30pm on ITV.