Another week, another Drag Race UK season seven departure, and this one – according to social media – has been the hardest for fans to take so far.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Drag Race UK season seven episode four.
Nyongbella, the Cameroonian queen via London, has left the competition.
In episode four ‘Sweety Darlings!’, which aired last night (16 October), the remaining ten queens were tasked with an acting challenge inspired by Jilly Cooper and her famous bonkbuster novels.
On the runway, it was an Absolutely Fabulous extravaganza, with Bubbles actress Jane Horrocks judging the queens on their ‘Ab Fab: A Night of a Thousand Sweetie Darlings’ garments.
While Nyongbella impressed judges Horrocks, RuPaul, Alan Carr and Michelle Visage with her cutesy Saffy-inspired schoolgirl look, she didn’t quite stand out in the acting challenge.
She landed in the bottom two alongside Sillexa Diction, and after a lip-sync to “Pearls” by LGBTQ+ ally Jessie Ware – in which Nyongbella’s shoes pretty much fell apart – the soft-spoken, self-described Bratz doll departed in 10th place.
To a degree, Nyongbella knew she would be going home. It was her third time lip-syncing, and for four weeks, the judges had told her she was lacking compared to her fellow queens.
“Realistically, it’s like well, unless I absolutely demolish [the lip-sync], the writing is on the wall,” she told PinkNews, hours after her elimination.
“Even then it’s like, I can still demolish but they might just be like, three strikes you’re out.”
To some viewers, including Nyongbella, that’s exactly what seemed to be the case. She got little air time during her lip-sync against Sillexa – up until her shoes broke.
“I didn’t even realise until people said it. I’m not really featured in the lip-sync until the shoe moment. Then all of a sudden, now they found me on the camera.
“For most of the lip-sync up until that point, most of my shots it’s me creeping into Sillexa’s camera… So I was like, ‘Oh, it’s interesting how you couldn’t find me before, but now you guys managed to find me…’”
After attempting a knee slide, both of her shoes broke and she realised: “Well, that’s it. That’s a wrap.”
Throughout all four episodes, the judges were less than impressed with Nyongbella’s performance, asking more from her runway garbs and personality. Before the season began, she fretted that she would receive a similar response from fans.
“We saw the first episode and they took a lot of goes at my personality and had issues with how I present and all that stuff. I was very worried that that would bleed into the narrative of the show because I feel like the judges have the power to control a queen’s narrative,” she shared.
“If the judges say that you’re quiet and you’re fading into the background, the fans are going to feel like you’re quiet and you’re feeling in the background.”
She continued: “I was worried that it would resonate and be placed onto the edit and then be placed onto the fan perception.”
Quite the opposite, in fact: the fan response has been rapturous. One fan described her as “a true star in the making”.
Every now & then on #DragRaceUK you’ll get someone who is so easy to root for, someone who simply lights up the screen with their presence. That’s @nyongbella_ this series. The IT GIRL & DIVALICIOUS DIVA of S7. A true star in the making
pic.twitter.com/fSZC0DekCd
— DragZilla (@drag_zilla) October 17, 2025
“I’m happy that like, you know what? It proves to be the exact opposite and now everyone’s like, ‘Well, I guess the judges [are] dumb as bricks.’ So clearly they just don’t see the vision,” Nygonbella said. “They just don’t get it. I’m like, you know what? Tea.”
During episode three, girl group week, Nyongbella did receive praise from the judges for her verse and performance. Moments later, she was told she would still be lip-syncing in the bottom two, as everyone else had, in their eyes, performed better.
“I’d rather you tell me that everything was bad than to be like, ‘You was great!’,” because then it became a thing where I started to feel really deflated,” Nyongbella confessed, reflecting on week three.
“It then just makes me feel more like I’m just not up to par, just not up to scratch, and like everyone else is just doing so much greater than I am. It just made me feel like, ‘Why am I here?’”
But Nyongbella is a diva who does not stay down for long. “I don’t like being sad. I’m not a girl who likes to wallow,” she said. Now, she feels “on top of the moon”, and is even using her newfound platform for an incredibly positive and personal reason: to raise money for her transition.
Encouraged by her friend and fellow trans queen Inga Rock, Nyongbella has started a GoFundMe to help pay for her transition.
“I’m not like really the kind of girl who likes to ask for help or show vulnerability but then [Inga] was like, ‘No, darling, I think you should do it.’ Like there’s no harm in doing it… there’s no harm in asking for help really,” she said.
“It’s just so surreal. I had almost come to terms with that it just won’t happen, it just won’t be a thing, because the economy is in an all time low and drag is not the most stable career to be banking financial security on,” she said. But, after launching the fund 24 hours ago, she has already raised hundreds towards her transition.
As for whether Drag Race UK fans will see more of Nyongbella on a future season of the show? That depends on whether they donate to her transition fund.
“All I know is that until I reach my transition goals, I’m not doing the show again. Like, give me the Bosco titties!”
Drag Race UK season seven continues on BBC iPlayer on Thursdays at 8pm BST in the UK and on WOW Presents Plus internationally.
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