Drag Race star Tayce slams Strictly after being snubbed by BBC despite Christmas win

Tayce has claimed that a 'negative focus on trans people' cost her a place on Strictly Come Dancing. The drag queen, whose real name is Tayce Szura-Radix, found fame when she finished as runner-up on the second series RuPaul's Drag Race and then won the Christmas edition of the BBC competition last year in a history-making move for the show, but failed to secure a place on the main line-up.

The TV star initially sparked rumours that she had been snubbed when she claimed in a viral social media post that she was 'too much' for the main programme as stars like Geordie Shore legend Vicky Pattison, Stefan Dennis of Neighboursfame and fellow drag queen La Voix were revealed as some of the contestants taking part for this year's full series.

She would have jumped at the chance to take part in the programme, but Tayce, who is not trans, believes that the fact that she looks 'more like Naomi Campbell' than a typical drag queen, some of the audience wouldn't be prepared to accept her on the mainstream show.

READ MORE: Drag Race star drops huge clue they've signed up for BBC Strictly in cryptic post

READ MORE: Strictly Come Dancing announces Emmerdale star Lewis Cope as Kristian Nairn's replacement

Speaking on behalf of WhichBingo, Tayce told The Mirror: "I had the most amazing time. It was such an honour and a privilege to be the first drag queen on that show. I mean, I've obviously was only for the Christmas special, the whole main series. I would have loved to have been in the main series, but that didn't happen for me for some reason. I don't know why.

"Because I guess I look the way that I do, where we're in a climate right now where there's so much of an attack and a light and a negative focus on trans people.

"I mean, I myself, I'm obviously not trans, but I don't look like your standard hokey pokey, artichokey kind of drag queen, where I think people only feel comfortable when they're in on the joke and they feel like, oh, it's a man in a wig. And I mean I don't look like a man in a wig, I look like Naomi Campbell. And some people can't handle the beauty and the essence. And I think that's kind of more of a thing on them."

The former Celebrity Gogglebox star then clarified that she would perhaps be 'too much for the public' if she were to hit the dancefloor for what could potentially be nearly three months, and insisted that she would still love to take part at some point in the future but had expected the call to come this year.

She said: "I would have loved to have done the main season. But when I said, in regards to what I said about being too much, it really meant about me being like, maybe I'm too much for the public.

"It didn't mean I was too much the show or for the people who booked me. I think I'm maybe just too much of a people to handle me at home because I really had my fair share of backlash.

"Throughout my whole time on the Christmas season on all sorts of social media and I read things but it's something that doesn't affect me but I know there would be someone that could have been in my position that really wouldn't have been able to handle that kind of pressure or that kind of attack so maybe like when I say I was too much maybe I'm just too much for a whole season of my iconicness and if people can't handle that that's okay."

" I'm such a fan of the show and I know I would kill it. Double Dutch. So, yeah, I mean, if it is what it is. I mean at the end of the day, I would have loved to. I was honestly really expecting to be called back, especially because there's been kind of a trend, if you will, of winners coming back from the Christmas season.

"So I kind of sat there thinking, yep, I'm going to get that call, it's going to happen. So it humbled me a bit than I did at the call, but you know what, maybe I was just, yeah too much for the public at home."

Like this story? For more of the latest showbiz news and gossip, follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Threads.