Tyra Announces Lawsuit Against RuPaul, Visage, and WOW
The Drag Race season two winner claims he intends to pursue legal action over alleged defamation and emotional distress.
King Tyra, best known under his former stage name Tyra Sanchez, has announced an apparent lawsuit against RuPaul, Michelle Visage, and World of Wonder (WOW) Productions, alleging “intentional infliction of emotional distress, defamation, false light, and tortious interference with prospective economic advantage,” according to a Statement of Claim he posted to social media.
In a Facebook post, the winner of the second season of RuPaul’s Drag Race claimed there has been a “systematic and malicious campaign” to “discredit and destroy [his] career and livelihood.”
Tyra, who posts on Facebook under his birth name, James Ross, outlined a list of personal complaints against the production company and the two public figures he claims are responsible.
Those complaints include Visage repeatedly stating that she would have advocated for fellow contestant Raven to win instead of Tyra — despite Visage not joining the judging panel until season three — as well as claims of “intentional humiliation” stemming from a scripted audience question during a DragCon 2017 panel discussion and a 2018 police report filed by WOW accusing Tyra of threatening to “blow up DragCon.”
Tyra has been involved in multiple online controversies since his 2010 season victory.
In 2017, Tyra posted a mock obituary for fellow season two contestant Morgan McMichaels, linking it to his Soundcloud page. McMichaels quickly denounced the stunt, saying it was an act of retaliation after she indirectly got Tyra removed from a drag event celebrating her birthday.
Tyra initially apologized for the incident, but later reversed course and has since referenced it in his lawsuit against WOW, citing McMichaels’ All-Stars 3 entrance, during which she exclaimed, “I look pretty good for a dead bitch!”
RuPaul, Visage, or WOW have yet to publicly respond to Tyra’s post or his pending legal action.
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