'Drag Race U.K.'s Lawrence Cheney Deletes Twitter Account After Hate

RuPaul's Drag Race U.K. top four contestant Lawrence Cheney's Twitter account is now inaccessible. This comes after a torrent of hate from fans, reacting to the latest episode from the series.

Cheney is one of the top four queens on the series. She was the first competitor of the season to reach three RuPeter badges and quickly became known for her comedic wit and charisma. But, over the last few episodes the highly-competitive Cheney has seen herself stumble in the competition as Bimini Bon Boulash's star has taken off.

In this week's episode, Cheney clashed with competitor Ellie Diamond. After winning the mini challenge, Diamond gets the opportunity to choose the lineup for the Maxi Challenge's standup set. She, like many contestants would, organizes the queens in a way that would hopefully give her an advantage: A'whora (who she doesn't believe will do well) first, herself second, and then Boulash, Cheney, and Tayce. Diamond, who is the only contestant left to not win a RuPeter badge, sees this as a moment to get a leg up in the game.

Cheney takes issue with the lineup, not because it disadvantages A'whora, but because by putting Boulash and Cheney back-to-back, the two are now in direct competition. This would mean that one's success would be easily compared to the other's performance. The pair were thought to be the top performers of the challenge.

According to Cheney in both the Werk Room and Untucked, her anger grew as Diamond asked the queens for their thoughts and opinions when it was fairly clear that Diamond had made her decision. What added to this disappointment, according to Cheney, was the fact that the pair had a sisterhood of sorts -- in this way, she likely thought Diamond would look out for the two of them.

Online, Cheney saw the brunt of the criticism with many pointing out that she has said shady things about Diamond on the show in previous episodes. Many believe she would have chosen a lineup that favored her, and not considered Diamond, if given the chance. As is common with the Drag Race fandom, the critics turned dramatic, becoming outsized hate.

Cheney is not the first person involved with Drag Race to depart from social media. In 2020 alone RuPaul, Michelle Visage, and Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman all took steps back although the specifics of why Ru and Visage left are unknown -- they have both returned in full form. Bowyer-Chapman deleted his Twitter and locked his Instagram comments after similar hate from fans. Widow Von Du and Brita Filter, both from season 12, also have recently been on the brunt end of hate from fans. Beginning with All Stars season five, the show itself uncharacteristically began to call out this type of hate online, joining a growing chorus of queens that have been pushing back against it since Drag Race season two.

For their parts other U.K. queens spoke out, condemning the hate. Many did so directly referencing Cheney and others did so obliquely, speaking in general.

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