Drag Race UK’s second eliminated queen responds to critiques from judges and cast mates: ‘I can’t stand it!’

The second queen to be eliminated from RuPaul’s Drag Race UK season seven has addressed her critics, including both the judges’ panel, and her season seven sisters.

Spoiler alert: this article contains spoilers for Drag Race UK season seven episode three. 

After a tough couple of weeks, including being in the bottom two during episode two’s design challenge, Viola entered episode three in a “bad mood”.

Despite the grey clouds, the Coventry-born queen put her famed musicality (she’s a violinist, and came sixth on drag music show Queens of the Universe) to good use for this week’s girl group challenge. Her verse was solid, Girls Aloud star Nadine Coyle was on the judging panel, and RuPaul stated that every queen had delivered the goods.

All was going well until RuPaul then confirmed that the sheer talent of this cast meant she would be nit-picking. And in Viola’s case, nit-picking meant tearing her outfit apart.

The runway theme was “Cuddly-Wuddly”, with Viola opting to dress as a bloodied and bludgeoned teddy bear. The look confused the judges, but viewers seemed to get the reference: was she dressed as a Springlock, from the video game Five Nights At Freddy’s?

“Babe, that was absolutely the inspiration. Hands down,” she said, speaking exclusively to PinkNews following her elimination.

“And they told me they told me that I couldn’t reference it! And then we’ve got Tayris [Mongardi] in [her] confessional saying: ‘She looks like Five Nights at Freddy’s,’ and I’m like, ‘I wanted to say that!’

“That’s a much easier description than ‘I’m a dead zombie drag queen in an animatronics costume but then something’s happened and I’ve been murdered and now I’m a dead and I’m a zombie’, and making me look like I’m Kennedy Davenport explaining ‘…after a long night of hooking’ [after Drag Race season seven’s Death Becomes Her runway],” Viola said. 

“And, it’s like, God, give over.”

While the judges branded Viola’s Five Nights at Freddy’s look too “costumey” and not drag enough, Viola is pleased that the outfit has started a conversation online about what drag really is.

“It’s all about the conversation of: ‘Is this teddy bear drag?’ You know what my answer is, but I’m just so glad that people are having this conversation and actually really interested in discussing this topic because I think it needs to be talked about,” she urged.

VIOLA DRESSING UP AS SPRINGTRAP FROM FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY’S FOR THE CUDDLEY RUNWAY HELLO?!?!? #dragraceuk pic.twitter.com/79fejwGrZ5

— ray ✨ (@mascarayde) October 9, 2025

“I think drag at the minute can be put into so many boxes which isn’t helpful for us as a community, and I think we need to just embrace all types of artistic drag, and that’s the spooky, that’s the weird, that’s the kooky, that’s the androgynous. Maybe it wasn’t the perfect fit for Drag Race, but I’m so glad I did that.”

As she attempted to stop herself from being in the bottom two, she promised RuPaul that no more of her runway looks would border on costumey. That was, she has since said, a big lie.

“I said to RuPaul, ‘This is the last costumey thing you’re ever going to see. Everything else is glamour from here.’ Well, it wasn’t entirely true. But you’ll have to stick around on my Instagram to see,” she teased.

It sadly wasn’t just the judges who took issue with Viola as, from the get go, she appeared to rub her competitors the wrong way. Half-jokingly, they criticised her choice to sing rather than rap during the girl group challenge, mocked her wig, called her a “brat” and, in episode two, voted her the “Most Painful” queen – aka, the biggest pain in the backside.

Where did that tension with her cast mates come from? “The whole painful thing, I can’t give you an answer because they never did,” she revealed.

“What they told me was I speak too much. And I was like, I’m on TV. What do you want me to do? Be quiet? [She mock whispers] ‘Guys, RuPaul’s here,’ – No, I’m gonna scream. I’m gonna shout.”

Viola asked one of her Drag Race sisters what it was about her that irritated them.

“[They said] ‘I think you’re a bit loud, you sing too much’ and I was just like well, that’s me, so… great. Am I gonna change myself? Am I gonna take on those critiques and be a different me? No, I’m gonna be me.’

However, she admitted that after that conversation, she did temper her personality.

“I do think I was a bit more of a tame version of me. But that’s because like, the natural human instinct is to be liked.’”

One cast mate who appeared to take particular joy in ruffling Viola’s feathers was Welsh drag star Catrin Feelings. Again, Viola didn’t quite understand.

“Catrin has admitted to me now that she’s just winding me up. I can’t stand it!” she laughed.

“We were getting on really well. We were having good chats. But then she would just suddenly come out with these shady things. When I deliver a shady thing… I put on a bit of a [theatrical] voice,” she explained, suggesting that her “shade” came across as an obvious joke.

“Catrin does not deliver shade that way. She delivers shade blunt, straight up. With the stress of Drag Race and not being around my support system… I did not know how to react to that. I just felt ‘Oh my God, she hates me.’”

For the remainder of Drag Race UK season seven, with Viola gone, Catrin Feelings seems to have found someone else to distract her. During episode three, she seemed to spark a romance with Brighton-based performer Tayris Mongardi.

“That came out of nowhere,” Viola confirmed. “Babe, I had no idea! Apparently there’s more to be seen with that storyline…”

Drag Race UK season seven continues on Thursdays on BBC iPlayer in the UK and WOW Presents Plus internationally.

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