The drag superstar’s sister, Chanel, speaks about carrying on The Vivienne’s legacy and questions the role stigma may have played in the untimely death…
In January, the world was shocked by the announcement that drag superstar The Vivienne had died at the age of 32. The inaugural winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, whose off-stage name was James Lee Williams, was found dead in their Cheshire home.
As IN Magazine reported in March, Simon Jones, The Vivienne’s manager, said in a statement, “James’s family and I feel it is important to say how James tragically died. It was from the effects of ketamine use causing a cardiac arrest.”
Now, The Vivienne’s sister is opening up to the BBC about the family’s decision to release the cause of death publicly. “It was so difficult to share the information around how he’d passed away, but we talked as a family about what we can do,” Chanel Williams told BBC Newsnight. “The Vivienne left a legacy as a trailblazing icon and this is, I feel, is James’ legacy to help other people.”
The family hopes the decision will encourage conversation about substance abuse. Williams revealed the family learned about The Vivienne’s ketamine addiction from watching RuPaul’s Drag Race UK. She said her brother kept his struggles from the family in order to protect them.
“He’d spoken openly on Drag Race about the battles he’d had with addiction, and he’d come through the other side of that,” she said, also sharing that her brother had been sober for a long period of time before relapsing.
To honour The Vivienne, the family is working with the charity Adferiad to raise awareness and tackle stigma around addiction. Williams believes this stigma may have prevented the performer from seeking professional help. “He was at the height of everything he was doing and I think because he’d said it in such an open platform, it’s really difficult to come back and say you’re struggling again.”
The family is also lobbying to have ketamine reclassified from a Class B to Class A drug, a similar classification given to heroin and cocaine in the United Kingdom. Days after The Vivienne’s passing, and before the cause was released, the BBC reported the UK government was seeking advice on changing the classification of ketamine. This came after illegal usage of the drug reached new levels with just under 270,000 people aged 16-59 using it according to data collected ending in March 2024.
Williams and her parents want to turn this tragedy into something positive to help others open up and have families ask questions. “If I can help one family to not feel what we are feeling, then it’s all worth it.”
POST A COMMENT