Yahoo News Exclusive: Bianca Del Rio talks hopes for Gia Gunn on All Stars 4
Despite being a fan favourite series, season six stars of RuPaul's Drag Race haven't fared well when they've come back for All Stars. While Milk placed 9th on All Stars 3, both Adore Delano and BenDeLaCreme quit, despite being front runners for their series.
Gia Gunn, who also appeared in the 2014 series, is returning for the hotly-anticipated All Stars 4 – becoming the first transgender contestant to take part in an All Stars series.
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, Bianca Del Rio, who snatched the crown in season six, hopes that Gia does better than the other contestants who left the competition.
"Her life has changed immensely since the show, going through all different ups and downs with the business side of it and also transitioning and realising it was the life she wanted to live," she said. "We've chatted.
"For most of us, when the show starts airing, you get the show and it's exciting and you go on the show and it's overwhelming, and then you're done with the show and it's this lull time before it airs. You have a couple of months of plotting and planning and getting your life together, not knowing the demons that are about to be unleashed when you're about to be exposed to the world.
"Then you have this idea like, 'This is great, I'm going to be famous', and then it happens and you get a lot of great praise and you get a lot of flack before you've done anything.
"Then it airs, and maybe you're not favourable or maybe it's not your proudest moments, or you didn't do as well as you wanted to, or you're finally hearing what everyone else says about you and that can start f**king with your head. Then you feel devastated and go, 'Wow, look at this range of emotions I've been through'. Then you go, 'If only I could do it again, I could do this'.
"I don't always advise going straight on after your season but she's had time, and I think she's in a much better place mentally. After knowing what you've been through on the show, I think a better perspective.
Bianca added: "It's always good to go back. Anyone who didn't get to go all the way to the end, go back and do it. It doesn't get easier, it's probably harder the second time around."
Adding who else she is supporting on the show, the 43-year-old said: "I don't care. I don't even know who is on the new one, I can't keep up with it.
"I never know who's been on it and who hasn't been on it anymore. Any exposure is good exposure and the show is getting bigger and bigger so as long as they go out there and enjoy themselves, then the audience will go out and enjoy themselves and it will help them all."
The self-proclaimed clown-in-a-gown also discussed how she felt about BenDeLaCreme breaking her Drag Race record on All Stars 3 before bowing out of the competition.
Admitting she didn't mind it, Bianca added: "Because BenDeLaCreme quit and I didn't quit.
"I love Ben and I think Ben is very talented and we're friends, but I think what's interesting is the TV factor.
"People love sympathy, people love the underdog. For me, sympathy is not part of my drag aesthetic. I'm not a crying, bitchy, whiny queen, so that's nothing to do with me and there is no bitch that's going to make me go, 'Argh, I'll take myself out'. Hell no! I'll fight you until the end.
"If I'm going in to a competition, I'm going in to do the best I can do. If you win or not, that doesn't matter, but accepting responsibility, I'm not one of those whinging."
Bianca Del Rio's It's Jester Joke comes to the UK in September 2019. Tickets are available at Eventbrite.co.uk
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