Michelle Visage has branded James Jordan “deplorable” and “gross” after he accused her of crying fake tears on Strictly Come Dancing.
The RuPaul’s Drag Race star became the latest celebrity to leave the competition on Sunday night, after performing a divisive routine to Madonna’s Vogue.
Prior to taking to the floor, Michelle’s spoke in an emotional pre-recorded video about how she’d chosen to do the dance to support the LGBTQ community, as voguing is deep-rooted in queer culture.Writing on Twitter, James claimed Michelle’s tears were “fake”, calling her emotional moment “boring”.
After Michelle had performed, James added that he thought she “obviously needed” the “LGBTQIA community’s vote”, having landed in the dance off the previous week. FAKE TEARS!!!!Boring!!!!— James Jordan (@The_JamesJordan) November 16, 2019MichelleNot for me, sorry.... not dancing just posing#Score 5 Obviously needs the LGBTQIA community’s vote after being in the dance off— James Jordan (@The_JamesJordan) November 16, 2019The comments were brought to Michelle’s attention after she and James exchanged tweets about her subsequent exit from the show.
Things started off politely between them, with James praising Michelle’s partnership with Giovanni Pernice and saying she’d been a “real contender” for the final. I actually believed that Michelle was a real contender and had some great performances. I was really starting to love their partnership They took a risk this week with the
Vogue dance (If you can call it that)It just didn’t pay off.And people at home obviously felt the same— James Jordan (@The_JamesJordan) November 17, 2019The only way to change the world is by taking risks. I'm SOOOOOO proud of this dance and going out on this one https://t.co/I1WLgIlVqn— michelle visage (@michellevisage) November 17, 2019You should be proud of yourself as I thought you and Giovanni were brilliant together. In fact I thought you had a chance of winning Change doesn’t always mean it’s better but you took a risk it just didn’t pay off. You still did great xxx https://t.co/BzHU3910XN— James Jordan (@The_JamesJordan) November 17, 2019However, things soon escalated when Michelle dug deeper into his previous tweets and saw what he’d written about her Vogue routine.
“James, you should @ people when you talk about them! That’s all,” she wrote.
He responded: “No! That would be called trolling... That’s all.”He continued: “I love the fact I’m being trolled by @michellevisage for my honest opinions on
Twitter and never once ‘@’ her in any tweet. Didn’t realise I wasn’t allowed my own opinion on my own account.
“Think she’s still upset ‘her’ community didn’t save her. Don’t blame me.”Also James, you should @ people when you talk about them! That's all https://t.co/zW89A3e7jK— michelle visage (@michellevisage) November 17, 2019No! That would be called trolling...That’s all https://t.co/BPBRJTlmWu— James Jordan (@The_JamesJordan) November 17, 2019I love the fact I’m being trolled by @michellevisage for my honest opinions on Twitter and never once “@“ her in any tweetDidn’t realise I wasn’t allowed my own opinion on my own account Think she’s still upset “her” community didn’t save her.Don’t blame me 🤷♂️— James Jordan (@The_JamesJordan) November 17, 2019While Michelle did not respond directly to James, she took aim at him when her followers pointed out his comments about her choosing her routine just to get votes from LGBTQ viewers.
“Omg did he?!!! That’s deplorable. Gross,” she wrote.
When another sent a screen grab of James’ tweet calling her tears “fake”, she simply responded with: “Wowwwww.”Omg did he?!!! That's deplorable. Gross https://t.co/twE5FeykBP— michelle visage (@michellevisage) November 17, 2019Wowwwww https://t.co/d7IbOrLZ2x— michelle visage (@michellevisage) November 17, 2019Michelle has since shared her thoughts on her exit in an emotional
Instagram post.
“I’ve learned in this life you must take big risks in order to affect change,” she wrote. “Gio and I chose our Couple’s Choice to Vogue to bring a part of the underground gay ballroom scene to a massive show like Strictly.
“We are SO proud of the dance we did, but for me, it wasn’t about the judges’ scores. It was about shedding light on a group of people who deserve recognition and would otherwise not get it.” View this post on InstagramA post shared by Michelle Visage (@michellevisage) on Nov 17, 2019 at 11:57am PSTShe continued: “I owe my life to the LGBTQIA+ community so as an ally, I try to bring attention to them, their love, their struggles, in any way that I am able to. In this instance it happened to be through dancing and hear this: Voguing IS dancing.”
Insisting she had no regrets about the routine that saw her sent home, Michelle added: “Sometimes in life things matter more than winning and in this case, being an ally and bringing a part of queer culture to 14 million viewers on the
BBC is just as good as lifting that Glitterball. I am honoured and proud to go out on that dance.”
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