Drag Race UK’s Vanity Milan felt ‘pressure’ as the only Black queen on series three
Vanity Milan joins Attitude and Crystal to spill the tea on her time on the show for Tea Time in association with TAIMI.
Words: Alastair James; pictures: BBC
Drag Race UK’s Vanity Milan says she was surprised to discover that she was the only Black queen on series three of the show.
The queen sashayed away from the competition just before the finale, which will see one of Ella Vaday, Kitty Scott Claus or Krystal Versace crowned the UK’s next drag superstar.
Speaking to Attitude and Drag Race UK series 1 alum Crystal for Tea Time in association with TAIMI, the world’s largest LGBTQ+ social and dating app, Vanity also talked about being in a team with her husband.
Asked about her reaction to finding out she was the only queen of colour to enter the werkroom this series Vanity said she’d been surprised, revealing she expressed this to fellow queen Victoria Scone, who’s mind was similarly blown.
Expanding on this she said: “I felt a lot of pressure, there was [sic] a lot of times when I didn’t think I was doing my community justice. There was [sic] times when I broke down in tears off camera because I was, like, this is too much for me. Times that I almost was like I can’t do this.”
But she also chose to look at it as an opportunity to inspire other queens like her. “I thought, you know what? I’m here for a reason and I’m continuously being unapologetically black, unapologetically myself and also giving a platform to queer POC people, performers, cabaret performers who want a platform or need a platform.”
Discussing her fourth and final lip sync on the show, going up against Krystal Versace following the comedy roast, Vanity says she knew it was her time to go, describing being so close to the final as “bittersweet”.
She also reveals her husband, who works in Gucci and made her costumes, was not the most supportive of her drag at the beginning.
“He said ‘I married a man’ not a woman.” However, Vanity explained entering competitions helped get him on board and he got excited when he could design costumes.
“That’s when we became a team and he was like, ‘now I understand it, now I fully support it because we are a team, and we can do this together.’”
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