logo
Inquest into the death of The Vivienne taking place

Inquest into the death of The Vivienne taking place

Leader Live6 days ago
James Lee Williams, who was born in North Wales and attended Rydal Penrhos school in Colwyn Bay, died at home in Chorlton-by-Backford, Cheshire, on January 5.
In March, the star's family revealed the 32-year-old had died 'from the effects of ketamine use causing a cardiac arrest', saying they wanted to raise awareness about the dangers of the drug.
The inquest will be heard by senior coroner Jacqueline Devonish at Cheshire Coroner's Court in Warrington.
The Vivienne was found dead in the bathroom of their home near Chester, the opening of the inquest was told.
Police attended and confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances.
During their time on the show, The Vivienne admitted having been a drug addict for four years.
Speaking on the the first series of RuPaul's Drag Race UK, they said: 'It was party, drugs, but I couldn't leave the drugs at the party, it was constant for me.'
They added that their addiction was a 'habit that caught on a bit too quick and a bit too hard'.
The star performed as the Wicked Witch of the West in a UK and Ireland tour of The Wizard Of Oz musical and reprised the role in the West End at the Gillian Lynne Theatre last year.
They were due back on stage in March as the Childcatcher in a tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a role they first played last year.
Their funeral in Bodelwyddan was attended by RuPaul's Drag Race UK contestants Tia Kofi and Baga Chipz, along with singers Ian 'H' Watkins and Aston Merrygold and Coronation Street actress Claire Sweeney.
The Government is seeking expert advice after illegal use of ketamine surged to record levels.
In the year ending March 2023, an estimated 299,000 people aged 16 to 59 had reported use of the substance, which is controlled as class B, according to the Home Office.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

We bought our £260,350 London home through a government saving scheme
We bought our £260,350 London home through a government saving scheme

Metro

time21 hours ago

  • Metro

We bought our £260,350 London home through a government saving scheme

Welcome back to What I Own – Metro's property series where we speak to homeowners about getting on the ladder. When drag artist Nick Collier, who performs as Ella Vaday, first moved to London, aged just 16, he was paying just £266 per month in rent. Living in Dalston, long before it was trendy, he'd moved into a friend's room on a whim. Over the years, he saw East London change beyond recognition, and after scrimped and savingfor a deposit, with his partner, Marco, the pair were able to buy their own four walls in 2018. Making a living in musical theatre, Nick started dabbling in the world of drag five years ago. Just one year later, he made it through to the final of RuPaul's Drag Race UK. Nick even paid tribute to Dagenham in the process, creating a passionate look showcasing the local women who protested for equal pay at a Ford motor company factory in the 1960s, a story which was documented in the 2010 film Made In Dagenham. You can access completely fee-free mortgage advice with London & Country (L&C) Mortgages, a partner of Metro. Customers benefit from: – Award winning service from the UK's leading mortgage broker – Expert advisors on hand 7 days a week – Access to 1000s of mortgage deals from across the market Unlike many mortgage brokers, L&C won't charge you a fee for their advice. Find out how much you could borrow online Mortgage service provided by London & Country Mortgages (L&C), which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (registered number: 143002). The FCA does not regulate most Buy to Let mortgages. Your home or property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. Winning four maxi challenges, Ella Vaday wasn't in the bottom once, and so never had to lip sync for her life. And, of course, Nick's made space for his very own drag wardrobe at home. Where else would the wigs be kept? Here's what Nick had to say about his property journey… Where to begin! I left home in Norwich as a teen to go to drama school and somehow, 20 years later, I'm still in London doing what I love. I spent years working in musical theatre, doing shows like Wicked and The Book of Mormon in the West End. I was actually in rehearsals for Hairspray when the world shut down in 2020. Around that time, I'd started dabbling in drag. It was just a creative outlet at first, something to keep the spark going. Well, that little hobby grew legs, and a year later, I was in the final of RuPaul's Drag Race UK. That escalated, didn't it!? Life took a turn, in the best possible way. We paid £263,500 for our home in April 2018. We had a 10% deposit of £26,350. It was made up of money we'd each saved individually in Help To Buy ISAs, meaning the government topped up our savings by 25%. Sadly though, the government no longer offers this type of savings account. The government ended new applications to the Help To Buy ISA scheme in October 2022, and all first-time buyer house-buying applications were finalised by May 2023. The policy was originally introduced in 2013 to help buyers get on the ladder with new-build properties, and until 2021, when the scheme was revised to include first-time buyers only, it offered a loan of up to 20% of the property's value (the maximum value being £600,000). The purchase price was also capped differently depending on the region. While some say the policy was crucial in helping first-time buyers onto the ladder, it was relatively controversial, considering that research concluded that it both increased house prices and encouraged first-time buyers to take out debt specifically on new-build homes. It might no longer exist, but there are a few other schemes in place to help first-time buyers. First Homes scheme The First Homes scheme allows first-time buyers to snap up a home for between 30% and 50% below its market value. It's not limited to new-build homes, as it can either be a new property built by a developer or previously owned by someone else. You'll also need to earn below £80,000 per year before tax, rising to £90,000 in London, and you'll need to qualify for a mortgage for at least half the price of the home's market value. Lifetime ISA There's also the Lifetime ISA, which allows first-time buyers to purchase a property valued at £450,000 or less. The maximum amount you can deposit each year is £4,000, and the government will add a 25% yearly bonus to your savings (amounting to £1,000 if you max it out). Our mortgage is £1,037, we then pay around £325 for utilities, bringing the monthly outgoings on our home to £1,362. We're in Dagenham East, East London. We chose it mainly for affordability, but also because there's loads of investment happening in the area. Eastbrook Studios, the biggest film studio in London, is now just down the road. What I love most is how much green space we're surrounded by. You can walk for hours through quiet nature reserves, past ponds and open land. It's something you don't get living centrally, and it gives a real sense of calm. With a lot of hustle and sacrifice. Marco and I don't come from money, so we saved every penny ourselves. I was working full-time in the West End, and running a dog walking business during the day. I cycled everywhere to save on travel. We lived in a small basement flat in Angel for three years and said no to a lot of extras. It was all about the bigger picture. We had a brilliant mortgage adviser, Jack Childs from L&C. I'd worked with his dad in Wicked, so he completely understood how theatre income works. That made a massive difference, and the process went a lot more smoothly than I expected. We were on a three-year fixed rate at 0.97%, which felt like winning the lottery at the time. Once that ended, interest rates shot up. We're now on a 4.29% rate, which added a couple of hundred pounds a month to our mortgage. It's manageable, but you definitely feel the difference. It's still much cheaper than renting would be, and I always remember that at least we're paying off our own debt. I've rented ever since I moved to London, when I first moved to Dalston, Dalston Junction station didn't exist at the time. A friend and I said yes to a flat through someone's dad and just went with it. We had no idea where we were going, but we were there for seven years and saw the area change so much. My rent was £266 a month back then, which sounds ridiculous now. Later on, Marco and I moved into a basement flat in Angel with our dog Wally and stayed there for three years while saving to buy. I'd had enough of paying someone else's mortgage. I always said I wanted to own a place by the time I turned 30, and we just about made that happen. We went to see it after seeing another nearby property; they were about to do an open house viewing the next day, and we managed to see it before and get an offer in before anyone else. It was the space more than anything. The house is on a quiet street and had been lived in by the same man since he was a child. He was in his 90s when he sold it and wanted it to go to someone who would really live in it and make it a home. That felt important to us. It's London Pride weekend, and while that's certainly a cause for celebration, LGBTQ+ still face many issues, including accessing housing. Research from Stonewall shows that almost one in five LGBTQ+ people have experienced homelessness; these statistics increase to 25% of all trans people. The majority of these cases are caused by direct rejection from families over their LGBTQ+ identity, too, as 77% of people surveyed by akt said that 'family rejection, abuse or being asked to leave home' was the cause of their homelessness. Shortly before becoming homeless, more than 50% had their family members force them to stop expressing their LGBTQ+ identity, figures which rise to 64% for trans people and 55% for disabled people. The University of Stirling also finds that LGBTQ+ people have poorer housing outcomes than their straight and cis counterparts, too. Gay, lesbian and bisexual people specifically are less likely to own their own homes, while throughout the 1980s and 1990s, there were instances of gay and bisexual men having their mortgage applications refused because of the stigma tied to the HIV/AIDS crisis. The house needed a lot of work. We've renovated the whole thing ourselves over time. Luckily, we had a bit of savings left, so we tackled the kitchen first. That was always going to be the biggest job. Our style is colourful and personal. I don't like interiors that feel beige or grey just for the sake of being safe. I wanted it to feel full of character. Most of the artwork has a story behind it, whether it's something we picked up on a trip or something that used to hang in my nan's house. That's what makes it feel like home. I don't know anyone else with a dotty hallway like ours! The living room. It gets amazing light, so we went bold with the colour. It's filled with pieces we've collected over the years, and it's the room that really most like us. Cosy, a bit chaotic, lived-in and warm. For now, yes. Though I dream of having a dedicated drag room or wardrobe. Wigs take up more space than you'd think. The garden is the final big job. We've already added fencing for privacy, which made a big difference. Now we're working out how to use the space. With a small garden, you've got to be clever. We want something that feels like an extra room, not just a patch of grass. None so far. We've been lucky. Try not to fall in love with the first thing you see. We nearly bought a house that was basically falling down because we got obsessed with how we could change it. Looking back, it would have been a terrible decision. More Trending And if you're buying a doer-upper like we did, be honest about how much of the work you'll actually do yourself. Labour isn't cheap and time disappears fast once you've moved in. We'll probably stay here for a couple more years. That'll make it ten in total. After that, I've no idea. We might move closer in or go further out. It'll depend on what life looks like then. View More » What I do know is that we've learned so much from this house. We've made mistakes, we've figured things out, and we've created a home that feels completely ours. Whatever comes next, we'll go into it with a lot more confidence. And hopefully less wallpaper stripping. Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@ MORE: London Pride map shows route parade will take through city today MORE: The 'underrated' neighbourhood Londoners are flocking to for £20,000 discounts MORE: Oasis superfan wants to be front row so Liam Gallagher sees tattoo of his face

EXCLUSIVE The harrowing truth about The Vivienne's final hours, the moment his lifeless body was found... and tragic reason star may have turned back to ketamine shortly before dying from the drug: FRED KELLY
EXCLUSIVE The harrowing truth about The Vivienne's final hours, the moment his lifeless body was found... and tragic reason star may have turned back to ketamine shortly before dying from the drug: FRED KELLY

Daily Mail​

timea day ago

  • Daily Mail​

EXCLUSIVE The harrowing truth about The Vivienne's final hours, the moment his lifeless body was found... and tragic reason star may have turned back to ketamine shortly before dying from the drug: FRED KELLY

In an explosion of sequins, tight-fitting jumpsuits and outlandish blonde wigs, The Vivienne burst onto the nation's television screens in 2019 winning the first season of hit BBC reality show RuPaul 's Drag Race UK. The cheeky Liverpudlian drag queen – whose stage name derived from his love of Vivienne Westwood clothes – instantly won over viewers with his camp wit and larger-than-life impersonations of Donald Trump, and Maggie Thatcher.

Your guide to London Pride as the annual LGBTQ+ event kicks off this weekend
Your guide to London Pride as the annual LGBTQ+ event kicks off this weekend

Daily Mirror

time2 days ago

  • Daily Mirror

Your guide to London Pride as the annual LGBTQ+ event kicks off this weekend

More than a million people are expected to take part in London's Pride celebrations, attending the iconic parade and watching the dozens of performers across central London Off the back of another dazzling Pride month, the nation's capital is gearing up to host its annual Pride in London festivities, with more than a million expected to take part. The month-long celebration of individuality and Pride will culminate with the parade on Saturday (July 5), although there will be plenty of LGBTQ+ events lined up afterwards. ‌ More than 30,000 participants, making up 500 groups, take part in the UK's largest, and most diverse, Pride event. Here's the scoop on everything you need to know ahead of Pride in London 2025: ‌ When is Pride in London 2025? Pride in London is taking place on Saturday, July 5, beginning at 3pm. All events, including the parade, will run from 12pm until 8pm. What is the Pride in London parade route? The parade will set off from Green Park, by Hyde Park Corner tube station, before moving along Piccadilly towards Piccadilly Circus station. It will then travel south, down Haymarket, past Trafalgar Square and down Whitehall, before ending outside Big Ben. The event areas include: Trafalgar Square – Main stage Golden Square – The World Stage Leicester Square – LGBTQI, Women and Non-Binary Stage Dean Street – The Cabaret Stage Soho Square – Trans and Non-Binary Stage, with Pride in London Community Market Victoria Embankment Gardens – The Family Area Who is performing at Pride in London? Ain't Nobody star, Chaka Khan will headline this year's celebrations, which will take placed across the aforementioned six stages in central London. ‌ Elsewhere, there will be entertainment provided by the juxebox musical Titanique's Lauren Drew, Frankie Grande, brother of Ariana, and RuPaul's Drag Race UK star La Voix. Below is an extended list of performers across each stage: Trafalgar Square Chaka Khan Queenz Durand Bernarr Eurovision 2025 winner JJ La Voix Lauren Drew Frankie Grande Miriana Conte Jay Jay Revlon HERE AND NOW - The Steps Musical Lucky Roy Singh Presents the Queer Asian Takeover Dylan and the Moon The Sing Space Choir Justin Peng The Cocoa Butter Club Anthony Hughes Butch, Please! Dan Devlin Talks from Queerwell Stonewall, Jake and Hannah Graf, and Not a Phase. Leicester Square Kaylee Golding (DJ) girli Miriana Conte Chloe Star Anita B Queen (DJ) CATTY, MABEL (DJ) Redrum Butch, Please! Lazy Violet Queer Edg Don One Smashlyn Monroe ‌ Golden Square Amaria BB Keanan Vanity Milan Carter The Bandit Mark-Ashley Dupé (DJ) Nile The Cocoa Butter Club, Reptile B Lexxicon Jay Jay Revlon Don One Thandi Phoenix Kelechi JiGH Shafire (DJ). Dean Street Crip Ladywood Sam Buttery Ghetto Fabulous Lucky Roy Singh Presents the Queer Asian Takeover Dean McCullough's Pop Machine La Voix John Cameron Mitchell Coco Deville Trevor Ashley Viola Adam All & Apple Derrieres Alexandria St Payne Skylar Cister For more stories like this subscribe to our weekly newsletter, The Weekly Gulp, for a curated roundup of trending stories, poignant interviews, and viral lifestyle picks from The Mirror's Audience U35 team delivered straight to your inbox. ‌ Soho Square Telisa Geri Love Tobre Trans fashion by Ms A London Bok Brandy X Presents Temptation Kit Green Ebony Rose Dark The Others The DIVAs with Alexa Vox Alexis Gregory with Jane Stevenson The Divine and Andrea Di Giovanni DJ Tasty Tim DJ Princess Julia DJ Kaspa Sarah Savage (Brighton Trans Pride) Alexis Solia (trans Activist) Saba (activist) Kayza Rose (Activist/producer) Lia B (trans Activist) Pippa Dale (LBTQWomen and StockExchange) Daniel Lismore (Artist) Arlene McDermott (StockExchange/Trans In The City) Bell Ribeiro-Addy (MP) Trans Legal Omar Okai (Black British Theatre Awards) Oscar Davies (the UK's first recognised non-binary barrister) Jake and Hannah Graf (Trans is Human) Family Area David Ribi Drag Queen Story Hour Amanda and Rachel An Act from Above Stilt Walking Ava Beau Close Up Magician Andi Dadda and Daddy Joelle D'Fontaine Olly N Pop Taryn Sudding from Cool Mindz How much are tickets to Pride in London? Pride in London is for all with the festival being a free-to-attend, unticketed event. Help us improve our content by completing the survey below. We'd love to hear from you!

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store