NEW YORK – Like the proverbial EVITA, amazing wunderkid, Desmond Napoles (known by their drag name as Desmond the Amazing) has experienced being “high flying adored.” As the Andrew Lloyd Weber song ponders “Where do you go from here? What happens now? For someone on top of the world, the view is not exactly clear.”

The song talks about someone doing it all by the age of 26. Desmond did it at 8.

It was at that age where they appeared in full drag walking down the avenue as part of NYC Pride. That kicked off a media frenzy that had them in the spotlights of The New York Times, NBC News, Teen Vogue, OUT Magazine, among many others. 

Since then, Desmond and alter ego Desmond the Amazing has been busy. They were described in a meeting with their hero RuPaul as “the future of the world.” In the past seven years, Desmond has become a multi-awarded LGBTQ+ advocate, genderfluid editorial and runway model, motivational public speaker, performer, clothing designer, actor, singer, host, social media influencer and published author.

With these projects, Desmond has been showered with praise and admiration, however, all that has come at a huge cost. They and their family have also been harassed, threatened and publicly abused. Recently, a book reading that Desmond was headlining at a public library was shut down by a bigot who threatened physical violence.  Specifically, the troll threatened “I’m going to that library, I’m going with a bucket of dog shit and I’m pouring it on your parents and rubbing it into their eyes.” 

Desmond’s parents have been reported to child protective services hundreds of times, for letting their child be themselves, and subjected to investigations that proved they were completely innocent of any wrong doing. They have inspired at least one horrible propaganda video filled with obvious lies on You Tube called “The Dark Side of Desmond Napoles.”

As we talked on our show, high schooler Desmond indicated that they have a new vision for their steps ahead. They are working on a skin care line, but are retiring from their drag persona. The passion for that expression seems to be waning, even while their passion for LGBTQ+ youth rights and their own nonbinary identity has not.

They look forward instead to engineering trains and studying the science of locomotion.

As we listened to Desmond’s baby drag princess anthem “We Are Amazing” released in 2021, their spirit and attitude of the life they are facing rang out:

“I am amazing, you are amazing, we are amazing, we are all AMAZING”

Even baby drag queens grow up it seems, and potentially having to deal with petty adult hatred has taken the fun out of their self-expression of the recent past. In any case, the amazement will not be taken from young Desmond, and if their best self-expression and next chapter is skin care and trains, we are thrilled for them.

We know theirs will be the most fabulous train that Amtrack has ever seen.

Listen:

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Rob Watson is the host of the popular Hollywood-based radio/podcast show RATED LGBT RADIO.

He is an established LGBTQ columnist and blogger having written for many top online publications including Parents Magazine, the Huffington Post, LGBTQ Nation, Gay Star News, the New Civil Rights Movement, and more.

He served as Executive Editor for The Good Man Project, has appeared on MSNBC and been quoted in Business Week and Forbes Magazine.

He is CEO of Watson Writes, a marketing communications agency, and can be reached at [email protected] .

LOS ANGELES – Jamie Lee Curtis picked up the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award for best supporting actress for her role as IRS agent Deirdre in Everything Everywhere All at Once this past weekend and there is buzz about her and a potential Oscar win.

In the spirit of giving the incredibly talented actress well deserved accolades, Paw Works, an amazing no-kill, nonprofit animal rescue based in Southern California is honoring Curtis, a long time supporter.

To give a “round-of-a-paws” to Jamie on her recent SAG win and cheer her on in advance of this year’s Academy Awards, some of Paw Works’ adorable rescues are celebrating her with looks from a few of her iconic roles.

PASADENA, Calif. – A standing ovation greeted the WNBA’s Brittney Griner over the weekend when the basketball star and her wife, Cherelle, stunned the audience by walking out onto the stage at the NAACP Image Awards in Pasadena, Calif. 

As Deadline reported, Queen Latifah was speaking about the resilience of Black people Saturday night, when she said, “We stay overcoming because that’s what we do!” Then, she introduced the Griners: “As we gather here tonight, In the spirit of overcoming adversity, I want to take this moment to recognize someone who has done just that.”

The crowd roared as they appeared on stage with broad smiles, holding hands. Brittney wore an elegant black tuxedo and unbuttoned button-down white shirt, with Cherelle decked out in a regal purple pantsuit. 

“It feels so good to be here,” said Griner, “especially with my beautiful, amazing wife and with all of y’all here today.”

That moment when Brittney Griner and her wife Cherelle Griner took the stage at the 54th #NAACPImageAwards to roaring applause.👏🏾 pic.twitter.com/lDkqHWokrR

— NAACP (@NAACP) February 26, 2023

“Thank you for that beautiful applause,” Cherelle Griner said. “We are just truly so thankful to all the people, many of whom are Black women and Black-led organizations who fought so hard to bring BG home tonight.” 

The Phoenix Mercury player, who just re-signed with the team this month, regained her freedom in December 2022 in a prisoner swap between Russia and the United States. 

The 32-year-old missed the entire 2022 season following her arrest in Moscow one year ago. Russian authorities said she broke their law by packing vape canisters with cabbabis oil in her luggage. In August, Griner was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony for drug smuggling, and that sentence was upheld upon appeal in October. 

Griner was finally exchanged in the United Arab Emirates for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. He had served 10 years of a 25-year-sentence for conspiring to sell weapons to a terrorist group. Russia balked at the Biden administration’s request to secure the release of businessman and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who is still serving a 16-year prison sentence in Russia for spying.

“Let’s keep fighting to bring home every American still detained overseas,” Griner told the audience at the award ceremony. 

As NPR reported, almost three dozen Americans are wrongfully detained by foreign governments each year, a rate nearly seven times greater than the average compared to just ten years ago, according to a study by the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation. That group advocates for the release of Americans who are held hostage or wrongfully detained.

According to the foundation, right now there are at least 60 Americans who are currently being held hostage or wrongfully detained in foreign countries. Iran, China, Venezuela, Syria and Russia are holding the vast majority of those Americans prisoner. 

Griner and the Phoenix Mercury open their 2023 season against the Los Angeles Sparks at the Crypto.com Arena on May 19. The team’s first home game is May 21 when Phoenix hosts the Chicago Sky.

Surprises at 54th NAACP Image Awards:

TOWACO, N.J. — Wrestling star Daria Berenato, whose moniker in the ring is Sonya Deville, is celebrating a double engagement with her partner, fitness model Toni Cassano. The pair got engaged in a wine cellar cave in northwestern New Jersey the day after Valentine’s Day.

“It was always you,” Berenato captioned her post on Instagram. “I could go on for days about the way I feel about this woman, I never knew love could feel so happy and safe all at the same time. I found my best friend, my soul mate and my life partner all in one incredible human,” she told People magazine, which broke the story. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Daria Berenato 🌈 (@sonyadevillewwe)

Berenato, 29, popped the question on Feb. 15 at Rails Steakhouse, in front of their family and friends, including Cassano’s two daughters, ages 7 and 11. The out WWE star gave her fianceé a custom-designed ring, and was shocked when Cassano, 31, surprised her with an engagement ring of her own.

“I proposed, then Toni’s like, ‘Grab my purse.’ And she pulls out a freaking ring box, and she’s like, ‘I’ve been carrying this around in my purse for four months,’” Berenato recalled. “’So, whenever you proposed, I could give you a ring immediately back.'”

“I could have never imagined a love being so magical,” Cassano told the magazine. “I still wake up every day and truly feel like we’re living in a dream. This proposal was a fairytale, not only for me, but she proposed to my daughters, blending our worlds together. I can’t say it enough, but life with her is a true dream and we are so lucky to have found this love.”

“She is the epitome of my ride or die,” Berenato told the magazine. “To be able to show her and her two daughters how much they all mean to me was what this proposal was all about. They are my world and now we are one family forever together.”

Cassano said she first met Berenato at one of her shows last April. “This is going to sound really cheesy,” she told People, “but I knew, the second I saw her,” that she was the one for her. Cassano was seated in the front row. “The first time I ever saw Toni was when I was coming out doing my entrance ready to wrestle, and I looked into the crowd,” she recalled. 

After the show, the couple spent the night eating pizza at a random dive bar, and talked until 5 a.m. “I was instantly like, ‘This girl is the love of my life,’ ” said Berenato.

“It’s so cool to me to be in this position right now,” she said, “to be engaged as a gay female in the WWE, and to have proposed to my fiancée. Because I look back at seven years ago, eight years ago when I wasn’t even openly out yet, and I was hiding relationships, and I was still trying to figure out my comfortability with being gay and who I was.”

And she told the magazine she has a message for her fans and everyone LGBTQ+. 

“I never thought I’d be here, but look guys, I’m here and you guys can do it too. And it’s okay to be who you are. It’s okay to love who you love, and it’s so special and so important to accept yourself.”

SANTA YNEZ, Calif. – David Crosby, arguably one of the most popular and enormously influential singer-songwriter-guitarists of the last century known for his folk ballads and rock standards, has died at the age of 81.

In a statement released by his wife Jan Dance and family to entertainment media outlet Variety Thursday afternoon the family said:

 “It is with great sadness after a long illness, that our beloved David (Croz) Crosby has passed away. He was lovingly surrounded by his wife and soulmate Jan and son Django. Although he is no longer here with us, his humanity and kind soul will continue to guide and inspire us. His legacy will continue to live on through his legendary music. Peace, love, and harmony to all who knew David and those he touched. We will miss him dearly. At this time, we respectfully and kindly ask for privacy as we grieve and try to deal with our profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers.”

A founding member of the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and a two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, he was remembered in a Facebook post by former bandmate Graham Nash writing:

“David was fearless in life and in music,” Nash said. “He leaves behind a tremendous void as far as sheer personality and talent in this world. He spoke his mind, his heart, and his passion through his beautiful music and leaves an incredible legacy. These are the things that matter most.”

In a career spanning six decades Crosby’s influence was felt by generations of Americans. He was also an ally to the LGBTQ community. In a May 2020 article, Rolling Stone writer Althea Legaspi, writing about the opioid overdose death of pioneering out lesbian musician Melissa Etheridge’s son, Beckett Cypher, who died at 21 noted that Crosby was the sperm donor.

Etheridge and Cypher, who met in 1988 during a video shoot, have two children — daughter, Bailey, and son, Beckett. For several years after their births, people speculated about the identity of the sperm donor for the children. In 2000, the couple revealed it was fellow musician David Crosby.

While the then-couple were vacationing in Hawaii, they met up with Crosby and his wife, Jan, and began discussing their want to have children, but they had a dilemma as to whom to have as a sperm donor. “And Jan said, ‘What about David?’ ” Etheridge told Rolling Stone. “It came from her, which was the best, most perfect way.” They thought it over for a year before they made the call. “For one, he’s musical, which means a lot to me, you know, and I admire his work,” says Etheridge. “And he has his own life, has his own family.”

Crosby told Rolling Stone he didn’t hesitate at his wife’s proposition that he be the donor. “Melissa and Julie are good people,” he said. “Nice set of values, they’re funnier than shit, and they’ve got courage. All rare stuff. You could see that they were in love with each other.”

Etheridge and Cypher split up in 2000, but they continued to co-parent. Etheridge is also the mother of twins, son Miller and daughter Johnnie.

Crosby’s support of the LGBTQ community was also expressed on his Twitter account:

Being gay is something you realize not something you choose…and it is getting better….you can be gay now openly and have a happy life …I remember the 50s …wasn’t like that https://t.co/nQyMmWeLhC

— David Crosby (@thedavidcrosby) April 15, 2020

Dumb question …as if all gay people were the same…I like SOME. Gay people very much …there are some I love …but every group has all kinds ….so there are gays and straights that I like and some that I don’t … https://t.co/Ym14v8TTuR

— David Crosby (@thedavidcrosby) January 13, 2020

Crosby earned 10 Grammy nominations and one win in his lifetime leaving behind a formidable contribution to the American Songbook.

A look back at his career is here on Variety: (Link)

WEST HILLS, Calif. – Lisa Marie Presley — the only child of singer Elvis Presley — died Thursday after being hospitalized earlier in the day her family has confirmed in a statement.

Presley was transported by ambulance after being discovered by her housekeeper unresponsive at the Calabasas home she shared with her former husband Danny Keough, and her daughters from her marriage to music producer Michael Lockwood who she divorced in 2021, twins Harper and Finley Lockwood, 14.

Multiple media outlets reported that Keough had arrived home shortly after the housekeeper found her and began to perform CPR. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said that deputies and paramedics from the LA County Fire Department were dispatched to the Presley home in the 5900 block of Normandy drive in Calabasas.

Upon arrival paramedics took over CPR, administered a dose of epinephrine and upon finding a pulse transported Presley to the West Hills Medical Center located near her home in the San Fernando Valley.

Presley’s mother Priscilla confirming her death released a statement saying, “It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us. She was the most passionate strong and loving woman I have ever known. We ask for privacy as we try to deal with this profound loss. Thank you for the love and prayers. At this time there will be no further comment.”

Lisa Marie Presley was born on Feb. 1, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee to her father the late superstar musician Elvis Presley- dubbed the “King of Rock and Roll,” and her mother, actress and businesswoman Priscilla Presley. She was initially raised at the Presley family estate Graceland before moving to Los Angeles after her parents were divorced in 1973.

At age 9, Presley was at Graceland on August 16, 1977 when her father suffered a fatal heart attack and died at age 42. She became the joint heir to her father’s estate alongside grandfather Vernon Presley and great-grandmother Minnie Mae Hood Presley. Following their respective deaths in 1979 and 1980, she became the sole heir and also inherited her father’s Graceland mansion and grounds.

At age 20 Presley married Danny Keough, a musician, with whom she had two children, actress Riley Keough in 1989 and her son Benjamin in 1992. The couple divorced in May 1994, but were to remain close for the rest of Presley’s live suffering the loss also of son Benjamin, himself a musician, who died in 2020 at age 27, in a death ruled a suicide by the Los Angeles County coroner.

She went on to marry pop-superstar Michael Jackson in 1994, just 20 days after her divorce from Keough, later divorcing Jackson during the height of the child molestation allegations. She then married actor Nicholas Cage in 2002 although the actor filed for divorce four months later.

Presley married for a fourth time on Jan. 22, 2006 to Michael Lockwood, her guitarist, music producer and director. In 2008, they had twins, Harper and Finley Lockwood. Presley filed for filed for divorce in June 2016 and a nasty custody battle ensued. The two currently shared joint custody after an out-of-court settlement in 2022.

Like her father, Presley was also a musical artist, having released three albums: 2003’s To Whom It May Concern, which went on to become gold-certified as well as 2005’s So What and 2012’s Storm & Grace.

In addition to her music and raising a family, she was also a dedicated philanthropist, overseeing the Elvis Presley Charitable Foundation, which benefits homeless families and offers rent-free housing, daycare for children and other services to families in need.

Presley, a longtime friend of media mogul Oprah Winfrey, worked with Winfrey’s Angel Network to provide relief to those affected by Hurricane Katrina, as well as the Dream Factory to benefit children with life-threatening illnesses or disabilities.

Presley recently attended the Golden Globe Awards this past weekend as actor Austin Butler won an award for his portrayal of her father in the movie ‘Elvis’ released last year.

NEW YORK – The 18-year-old actor Noah Schnapp, who plays the character of the closeted gay teenager Will Byers on Netflix’s smash science fiction series “Stranger Things,” has himself come out as gay.

In a video posted to his TikTok account on Thursday, Schnapp wrote, “When I finally told my friends and family I was gay after being scared in the closet for 18 years and all they said was ‘we know’”

In the caption to his TikTok video, Schnapp wrote, “I guess I’m more similar to Will than I thought.”

@noahschnapp

I guess I’m more similar to will than I thought

♬ original sound – princessazula0

NEW YORK – If ever there was a gold standard for American broadcast journalists the likely two top choices would be famed CBS reporter and anchor Walter Cronkite and the groundbreaking ABC News reporter and anchor Barbara Walters.

The news came late Friday that the latter, a legendary broadcast journalist had died peacefully surrounded by family and friends at her home in New York City at age 93. Walters shattered the glass ceiling in her profession and became a dominant force in an industry once dominated by men. Walters is survived by her adopted daughter Jacqueline. 

Without a doubt Walters likely holds a record for the shear number of interviews of the rich and famous, political leaders, as well as celebrities from every walk of life and endeavor. Walters, who won 12 Emmy awards, 11 of those while at ABC News was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1989.

In her fifty-plus year career as a broadcast journalist she had earned nearly universal acclaim, respect and admiration for her work.

At ABC News as the co-anchor of the network’s extremely successful award winning 20/20 televised news magazine, she interviewed the people who made history in the mid twentieth century into the early twenty-first century conducting her last interview, of then businessman and potential presidential candidate Donald Trump, in 2015.

Walters began her national broadcastcareer on NBC’s The Today Show as a reporter, writer and panel member before being promoted to co-host in 1974. Her rising popularity with viewers resulted in Walters receiving more airtime, and in 1974, NBC executives promoted her to be the co-host of the program, the first woman ever to hold such a title on an American news program

Walters joined ABC News in 1976 after , becoming the first female anchor on an evening news program. Three years later, she became a co-host of “20/20,” and in 1997, she launched “The View.”

Bob Iger, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company which is the parent company of ABC News, praised Walters as someone who broke down barriers.

“Barbara was a true legend, a pioneer not just for women in journalism but for journalism itself. She was a one-of-a-kind reporter who landed many of the most important interviews of our time, from heads of state to the biggest celebrities and sports icons. I had the pleasure of calling Barbara a colleague for more than three decades, but more importantly, I was able to call her a dear friend. She will be missed by all of us at The Walt Disney Company, and we send our deepest condolences to her daughter, Jacqueline,” Iger said in a statement Friday.

She made her final appearance as a co-host of “The View” in 2014, but remained an executive producer of the show and continued to do some interviews and specials for ABC News.

“I do not want to appear on another program or climb another mountain,” she said at the time. “I want instead to sit on a sunny field and admire the very gifted women — and OK, some men too — who will be taking my place.”

From American presidents to her famed interview with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, along the way Walters touched on the lives of diverse and dynamic cross-section of humanity.

Her face to face conversations included face-to-face convos with folks like actors Katharine Hepburn, John Wayne, Patrick Swayze, Fred Astaire. She spoke with musicians such as Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, Barbra Streisand, and without missing a beat the significant political figures of her day like Henry Kissinger, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Vladimir Putin and Fidel Castro. Her interviews with Oprah and Monica Lewinsky shot the network’s ratings audiences through the roof.

The New York Times reported in 1999 that Walters’ interview with Lewinsky, the former White House intern who was a key component in the impeachment trial of then President Bill Clinton, “attracted an average of 48.5 million viewers, and an estimated 70 million people watched all or part of the two-hour program, in about 33.2 million homes.”

Walters directly asked Lewinsky, “You showed the president your thong underwear. Where did you get the nerve? I mean — who does that?” she said. She also asked the 25-year-old: “Where was your self-respect, where was your self-esteem?”

The list of people in front of the camera with her on The Barbara Walters Specials was breathtaking. Yet the stories of everyday folks, their lives, and struggles were a staple of her work searching out stories that needed to be told.

For the LGBTQ+ community, Walters often told the stories that painted a picture that was critical in putting a human face on an oft times maligned community. Her ABC Documentary on transgender children originally broadcast in 2007, introduced the world to trans girl Jazz Jennings, who was at six years of age at the time, and her hugely supportive family.

The Hollywood Reporter noted in an honest interview, Ellen DeGeneres talked to Walters about everything from her movie career to her decision to come out as a lesbian. She also opened up about her stepfather sexually abusing her and how she broke through a window one night to get away. 

Walters in later years did have her share of detractors among younger journalists and writers including Alex Pareene, the former editor-in-chief of online news site Gawker and later a staff writer at The New Republic in 2019.

Pareene penned an unflattering profile of Walters on May 13, 2013 in Salon headlined Good riddance, Barbara Walters.

He noted: “[…] current co-host of “The View,” is a national icon and a pioneer, and probably as responsible as any other living person for the ridiculous and sorry state of American television journalism. She has announced her retirement a year in advance, so that a series of aggrandizing specials can be produced celebrating her long and storied career. So let’s get things started off right, by reminding everyone how her entire public life has been an extended exercise in sycophancy and unalloyed power worship.

Pareene also took aim at her relationship with ” Roy Cohn, the notorious scumbag McCarthyite mob attorney.”

Writing about the relationship between the two Pareene notes: […] she, legendarily, pretended to be seeing (romantically) Roy Cohn, the notorious scumbag McCarthyite mob attorney who was also, notoriously, a closeted gay man (who had persecuted closeted “deviants” while working with McCarthy). Cohn was one of the slimiest and most detestable characters of the entire 20th century.

He was finally disbarred, in part for his hospital visit to a dying and incapacitated millionaire in which Cohn held up the man’s hand and had him “sign” a codicil to his will naming Cohn the trustee of his estate. Despite his moral bankruptcy, Cohn remained a member of elite Washington and New York society his entire life.

Walters said she was and remained close to him because he helped her father with a legal matter when she was a girl. But this also seems to explain why they were “dating” in the 1950s:

Did Cohn have a secret “nice” side? She was asked.

“I would not use the word nice,” she laughs. “He was very smart. And funny. And, at the time, seemed to know everyone in New York. He was very friendly with the cardinal, he was very friendly with the most famous columnist in New York, Walter Winchell, he had a lot of extremely powerful friends.”

Barbara Walters dies at 93 l ABC News

COLORADO SPRINGS – With a little help from the U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command, you can track Santa on his journey around the world.

NORAD, a joint organization between the U.S. and Canada, is responsible for tracking everything flying in and around the two countries.

At Christmastime, NORAD has a crucial mission: Track Santa.

It’s a tradition NORAD has carried out for over 60 years that started accidentally in 1955. Since then, NORAD has continued its annual mission.

From the command’s website:

24 hours a day, 365 days a year, NORAD tracks everything that flies in and around North America in defense of our homelands. On Dec. 24, we have the very special mission of also tracking Santa.

NORAD has been tracking Santa since 1955 when a young child accidently dialed the unlisted phone number of the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, believing she was calling Santa Claus after seeing a promotion in a local newspaper.

Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup, the commander on duty that night, was quick to realize a mistake had been made, and assured the youngster that CONAD would guarantee Santa a safe journey from the North Pole.

Thus a tradition was born that rolled over to NORAD when it was formed in 1958. Each year since, NORAD has dutifully reported Santa’s location on Dec. 24 to millions across the globe.

Thanks to the services and resources generously provided by numerous corporate contributors and volunteers, NORAD Tracks Santa has persevered for more than 60 years. 

Though the program began due to a misdialed number, NORAD Tracks Santa has flourished and is recognized as one of the Department of Defense’s largest community outreach programs.

Each year, the NORAD Tracks Santa Web Site receives nearly fifteen million unique visitors from more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Volunteers receive more than 130,000 calls to the NORAD Tracks Santa hotline from children around the globe.

NORAD also offers a phone line that remains open for 23 hours starting on Christmas Eve. Last year, the call center fielded over 53,000 calls, according to Lt. Sean Carter, the NORAD Tracks Santa Program Manager.

Follow Santa’s progress here: https://www.noradsanta.org/en/

LOS ANGELES – Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss, the famed DJ for Ellen Degeneres’ talk show, died Tuesday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A source with the Los Angeles Police Department said that his wife had appeared at an LAPD station to report him as person-in-need of assistance or in crisis Tuesday morning. Los Angeles Fire-Rescue personnel responding to a call for a medical emergency at a local hotel found Boss, 40, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. His death has been confirmed by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner. 

UPDATED DEC. 18 from KTLA:

Law enforcement sources revealed to TMZ that a note was left at the suicide scene of Boss and vaguely hinted at challenges he faced in the past. The site doesn’t go into detail on what was exactly said.

Investigators reportedly determined that the dancer took a rideshare from his home to a motel close to his home on Monday morning and switched his phone to airplane mode so no one could reach him or locate him.

The former “So You Think You Can Dance” contestant’s body was found by an employee of the motel.

In a statement, Boss’ wife, dancer Allison Holker Boss, announced his death, saying, “It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to share my husband Stephen has left us. Stephen lit up every room he stepped into. He valued family, friends and community above all else and leading with love and light was everything to him. He was the backbone of our family, the best husband and father, and an inspiration to his fans.

“To say he left a legacy,” she continued, “would be an understatement, and his positive impact will continue to be felt. I am certain there won’t be a day that goes by that we won’t honor his memory. We ask for privacy during this difficult time for myself and especially for our three children. Stephen, we love you, we miss you, and I will always save the last dance for you.”

On Twitter, Ellen DeGeneres wrote: “I’m heartbroken. tWitch was pure love and light. He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart. I will miss him. Please send your love and support to Allison and his beautiful children – Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia.”

Boss, a dancer, choreographer and DJ, joined the Ellen show in 2014 and stayed until DeGeneres ended the talk show in 2022. Boss was made an Ellen executive producer in 2020.

I’m heartbroken. tWitch was pure love and light. He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart. I will miss him. Please send your love and support to Allison and his beautiful children – Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia. pic.twitter.com/lW8Q5HZonx

— Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) December 14, 2022

Tributes to Boss are pouring in on Twitter and other social media.

If you or anyone you love is experiencing mental health issues or suicidal thoughts, please reach out for help. You can call or text the number 988, which will direct you to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

It is free and available 24 hours a day.

From KABC Eyewitness News 7 LA: