MICHELLE VISAGE
MICHELLE VISAGE OPENS UP TO ok!’s EMILY WHITWAM ABOUT BEING ADOPTED, HELPING HER DAUGHTERS THROUGH DEPRESSION AND WHY SHE DOESN’T FEAR THE ‘STRICTLY’ CURSE
ON ANOREXIA
‘MY MOTHER WAS SCARED I’D DIE’
ON CANCER
‘I GOT THE RESULTS THE DAY I FLEW IN FOR STRICTLY’
ON HER DAUGHTER
‘SHE WAS SUICIDAL’
Famed for being the queen of drag, Michelle Visage has sashayed away from her judging chair on American reality show Rupaul’s Drag Race and waltzed on to our screens here in the UK.
The 51-year-old LGBT icon, who’s currently competing on BBC One’s
Strictly Come Dancing with her professional partner Giovanni Pernice, first found fame during the ‘80s with her girl band Seduction, before moving into radio and TV.
When OK! sits down with Michelle in the penthouse suite at the Sanderson Hotel in London, it’s hard to believe that the upbeat star only recently underwent a biopsy following a 20-year battle with Hashimoto’s disease, a condition in which your immune system attacks your thyroid.
‘It’s not cancer, thank God,’ she reveals after our exclusive photoshoot. ‘I got the report that it was benign the day I was coming to England for
Strictly.’ Believing that the disease developed due to her breast implants, the Two To Make It Right songstress underwent surgery in April to have them removed.
New Jersey-born Michelle, who grew up in an adoptive family, is now mum to Lillie, 19, and Lola, 17, who she shares with her husband of 23 years, stay-at-home dad and writer David Case, who proposed six weeks after the pair met!
Here, Michelle – who came fifth in the 2015 series of Celebrity Big
Brother – tells OK! about her excitement at representing women over 50 on Strictly and candidly opens up about supporting her children through depression...
Are you excited about being a part of Strictly this year?
Yes! I’ve put everything on hold to do this, it’s a whole new world for me. I’ve kept saying no to Dancing With The Stars [in the US] hoping that Strictly would come around. I’ve had a flat in the UK for a couple of years, so I’m living here while my husband is at home in Los Angeles. He’ll definitely visit while I’m here, though.
What did David say about you doing the show?
He said: ‘Can I learn?’ I was like: ‘Calm down honey, I’m trying to be a world champion here!’ [Laughs] He’s my biggest supporter. I couldn’t do it without him, because he’s holding down the fort. Our parenting roles are reversed and I don’t think it’s easy. You have to be a strong man to be able to do the role of a woman.
You’re representing women over 50 on the show this year, does that make you feel proud? Of course! What a great way to stay in shape at 50! I want to show my daughters that, despite age, you can do whatever you want. I’d love to make it to the final!
How are your daughters feeling about you taking part?
My kids are mortified that I’m doing it – but that means I’m going to go in even bigger and post pictures all over their Facebook walls [laughs]. They just don’t want to see me in those fabulous outfits!
Are you excited about embracing the Strictly glamour?
Yes! I’m no stranger to glam. I have a feeling that after Strictly I’ll gain more body confidence. I’ve had two C-sections and I don’t love my mid section, so I don’t want to show that off, not at 50. But I love who I am.
It’s been said that your dance experience may give you an advantage over other contestants – do you think that’s true?
By an unfair advantage, if you mean dancing when I was seven, then I’m guilty! There’s no advantage, athletes have more advantage than I do. Watch Seduction’s music videos on Youtube and see the extent of our dancing [laughs]. We were no Pussycat Dolls, our dance moves were basic.
Who are you getting on with behind the scenes?
Cath [Tyldesley], I’m a sucker for a northern accent – it’s so homey.
How do you feel about being partnered with Giovanni?
So happy! We are literally the same person. We look really good together and he lets me make fun of him. He’s tall and strict – I need that.
‘MY KIDS ARE MORTIFIED THAT I’M DOING “STRICTLY’’’
As fellow American girl band members, have you bonded with his girlfriend Ashley Roberts?
Yes! I met Ashley at the launch show and she was so sweet and so fun! I told her I needed to borrow her man for a few months and she handed the Italian reins over! There’s about 127 years between our bands, but if you can survive a girl group you can survive anything!
Was there anyone you wouldn’t have liked to have been paired with?
AJ [Pritchard], because I’d have looked so silly. He’s really talented but I’d look like a cougar. It feels dirty [laughs].
Have you and David discussed the
Strictly ‘curse’?
Yes, and we both laughed. Dancing’s purely physical, which is sexy in itself, and I’ll be using that passion. But I’ve been married for nearly 23 years – it’s not on my radar. It’s about thinking, that was sexy, I can’t wait to try it with my husband. I’ll have to get him some lessons, he’s the king of dad dancing!
How did you and David meet?
We got chatting in Central Park in New York. He was an actor and I was a breakfast show presenter. Six weeks later, we got engaged. We just knew it was right and, also, it was almost like a dare! We were talking about a friend who got engaged really quickly, and he said: ‘I’d do that,’ and I said: ‘Me too!’ Three weeks later, it was Christmas and he bought a Christmas tree and in the star was my ring.
What’s the secret to a happy marriage?
Communication and separate time. We live together and love being together as a family. But, with me touring and being away, absence does make the heart grow fonder. My husband loves me being there, but I’m a woman who needs my space. The strength in us as a couple is to have our individual time – it’s important. But anything that’s worth keeping is worth fighting for, and I love him.
Would you renew your vows?
We did! On our 15-year anniversary we took a cruise and our daughters were our witnesses and maids of honour. David’s Instagram bio reads: ‘Father of two strong independent young ladies.’ He sounds like the perfect man... He’s wonderful. Our daughters are strong and independent. Lillie’s queer and
Lola’s heteronormative. They’re beautiful in their own ways but have both battled depression.
What’s Lillie’s journey been like?
She likes girls but she prefers the name queer better than gay. We’ve both always known it. She dated a boy, and for a while she identified as bisexual. Then she realised she thought boys were cute and she felt more sexually attracted to girls. She had to deal with depression for so long that she lost a lot of her teenage years. I’ve told her I want her to date everything so she knows what she likes. She’s really flourishing now.
How long did Lillie’s depression last?
Years. Lillie was suicidal for a while. But she’s been three years on the other side now. I tend to take a holistic approach, so we tried everything before we realised we had to actually save her with medication and therapy. With mental health, children are always forgotten, people tell them to ‘man up and quit complaining’. Instagram really feeds into that. Lillie will log out for a month and Lola’s come to a place where she now realises her self worth. I’ve taught her to love herself.
Are the three of you a close unit?
So close. Lillie’s flying the nest now and I’m devastated, but I’m already using her room as a closet [laughs].
What do you wish for their futures? Happiness. Lillie’s going to be a writer. She loves writing period fiction – she’s a weird kid, but I love weird. She did a version of a TED Talk at uni about the pride she took in being different. I recorded the whole thing and was in tears. She was embracing who she was after battling the darkest demons a kid should battle. I’m weird, too. That’s why I champion the LGBTQIA+ community because they are the kids who were the misfits. They need people fighting the fight with them. How did you become a campaigner for the community? It all started when I was in high school and I stuck up for a gay boy who was being bullied. I realised at that point that I have a really big mouth and I should use it for good. Then when I moved to New York, my mum gave me a fake ID to help me get discovered in clubs and the first people to welcome me into their arms were gay people. I knew that they were my chosen family.
You were adopted by your mother as a fourmonth-old baby. How did that affect you? I’ve had an incredible life but I’ve never really felt like I belonged. My mum and dad were my biggest fans. We didn’t have a lot growing up, but they worked so hard and scraped every penny they could to get me acting classes. I didn’t realise until I was older that I was truly lucky to be adopted by my family. But as an adopted kid, you always feel like something’s missing. I met my biological parents and found out that my biological mother was 18 and gave me up rather than terminating me.
In your book The Diva Rules, you open up about struggling with an eating disorder at 14. Was your adoptive mother there for you? Yes. Both my parents were very big which I think didn’t help. I didn’t eat and took laxatives. My mother was scared to death that I was going to die. It’s a tough thing to hate the skin you’re in. Body image is still something I battle with today. I’ve come to terms that I’ll never be a size two and I’m okay with it, I love my curves.
Do you worry about your girls?
All the time. Because I’m a survivor of anorexia, I’m not very good at communicating about it. But we have a good therapist and I try to set up healthy eating habits.
You’ve also recently opened up about your battle with Hashimoto’s disease. What were the symptoms?
‘I WAS TRULY LUCKY TO BE ADOPTED BY MY FAMILY’
Sleeping and gaining weight. My skin was crackly dry and my hair fell out in clumps. I was also having hardcore panic attacks.
What’s been the cause of the disease? My journey goes back to me getting breast implants at the age of 21. My body couldn’t fight off the attacker [which Michelle believes was her breast implants] because it was there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. After 30 years of having breast implants and 20 years of suffering with Hashimoto’s, not one doctor told me what it could be. So, I found a Facebook group where over 50,000 women who had the same symptoms from their breast implants and started a documentary on my journey with Breast Implant Illness, before getting them removed. Since having them removed the thyroid nodule is going down, which is amazing.
You also had to undergo a biopsy in August. Were you scared it could be cancer?
Yes! It’s not cancer, thank God. My thyroid had doubled in size over the past two years and my doctor told me I had to have a biopsy before I began Strictly. I got the report the day I was coming to England for Strictly and it was benign.
You’ve been judging Rupaul’s Drag Race for ten years. Are you excited about it coming to the UK?
Are you kidding me?! That’s the only reason why I did Celebrity Big Brother five years ago, to put Drag Race on the map!
You and Rupaul have been friends since the ‘80s – was that a crazy time?
Yeah, we met in a nightclub. It wasn’t until I came out with It’s Going To Be A Lovely Day, which features on The Bodyguard soundtrack, that we ran into each other and he said to me: ‘Girl, I’ve been watching you for years. You’re a superstar.’ I had tears in my eyes, because he was a New York icon and the only person that ever said that to me was my mother.
Cara Delevingne featured as a guest judge on the show. She’s a huge fan, isn’t she?
Yes! Cara’s become like a little daughter, she’ll text me being like: ‘Are you here? I want you to meet my new girlfriend!’ It’s really cute.
You also made an appearance on TOWIE in April to support Bobby Norris on his petition to make homophobia a criminal offence…
I’ve been a huge fan of TOWIE since the Amy Childs days! I’m so proud of Bobby – if he’s serious about being an MP he should do it, with lip gloss on! ok!
‘I HAVE A REALLY BIG MOUTH AND I SHOULD USE IT FOR GOOD’