‘Canada’s Drag Race’ judge Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman deletes Twitter account

Canada’s Drag Race judge Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman has deactivated his Twitter account, amid criticism of his judging style.

The Unreal actor, 35, has divided viewers with his tough, Simon Cowell-esque judging style on Canada’s Drag Race, sparking online attacks which have often been abusive in nature.

Bowyer-Chapman was accused by man of body-shaming after telling contestant Ilona Verley to wear full coverage foundation on her exposed buttocks during one runway – with Verley later telling Attitude that’d she found the incident “weird” and “embarrassing”.

After Bowyer-Chapman’s Twitter account disappeared over the weekend, RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Crystal tweeted that the actor had effectively been “bullied” off the platform. 

“So the black queer judge on Canada’s Drag Race gets bullied off twitter. Ya’ll happy?” the performer tweeted.

“The main arguments I’ve seen are accusations of “inauthenticity” (as if YOU know what’s authentic for him), and bad critiques (but none of the other judges are getting that half as hard).

Honestly- search his name and just look at the endless endless nasty tweets. It’s so depressing. Are you contributing to this?

Wild idea, but maybe put that energy into someone who’s actually done something … bad?

— Crystal | Black Lives Matter (@crystalwillseeu) August 23, 2020

“It’s a pile on. And it’s racist. And for what? Clout? Bet you would have loved a good old fashioned public stoning.”

Crystal, who moved to UK from Canada and appeared on Canada’s Drag Race in a guest capacity this season, continued: “Honestly- search his name and just look at the endless endless nasty tweets. It’s so depressing. Are you contributing to this?

“Wild idea, but maybe put that energy into someone who’s actually done something… bad?”

Prior to the deletion of Bowyer-Chapman’s account, Canada’s Drag Race’s latest eliminee Lemon defended the actor’s judging style in an interview with Attitude.

“What everyone is forgetting is that the judging goes on for hours, and so the judges obviously say supportive, very kind things to us as well, but at the end of the day it’s a competition and it’s TV”, Lemon said.

“If they were like ‘you guys are all so pretty’, it’d be a terrible show, don’t ya think?”

The 24-year-old performer added: “So no, I never felt that any of the judges were rude or unqualified. They were chose for a reason and they’re all really cool people.

“We need to keep in mind that they’re humans, too.”

Canada’s Drag Race is available to watch on the BBC iPlayer.