According to many fans, a mysterious 11th contestant has been edited out from the fifth season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, which premiered on September 28.

The official cast announced for the new season featured a total of 10 performers, a number that had already sparked speculation given that previous editions saw 12 queens competing for the crown. When the first episode aired last Thursday, fans were quick to point out several scenes in which it appears that an 11th contestant was participating in RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season five but was completely hidden and edited out.

Several fans took to social media to share images from the show where it appears that the mystery queen was present. Among others, a frame appears to include a hand with a giant ring that doesn’t belong to any of the other performers, and another screenshot shows a lineup of the contestants that features 10 heads but 11 pairs of legs.

Speculation over the reasons why the queen might have been edited out of the episode range from Covid-related ones to family problems. However, other fans pointed to a now-deleted Reddit post that emerged in February 2023, when someone who claimed to be a member of the show’s production crew stated that several sexual harassment allegations had been made against one of the contestants after filming had begun.

In the post, the person accused the BBC and World of Wonder (Drag Race UK’s production company) of allegedly trying to conceal this news instead of acknowledging the incident. According to the post, the queen was given the choice to intentionally perform badly on the show and be sent home, instead of being publicly disqualified.

 

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In a similar situation, drag queen Sherry Pie was immediately disqualified from the US version of the show after being accused of catfishing. Referring to this instance, the author of the Reddit post said that the situation was handled very differently on the set of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season five.

On an episode of the podcast Drag Her!, Drag Race alumn Jackie Cox was asked about the rumours and said: “I do believe that is true because I got some texts from some of my sisters saying that is true. I don’t know what the accusations are, I don’t know how it all plays out, but I do believe that there will be another body on that stage.

“I’ve also heard that they may edit them out somehow, entirely. There definitely was an 11th queen there with them, but whether we’ll see them on the program remains to be seen,” the drag performer stated.