Tear Jerker / RuPaul's Drag Race

Moment pages never use spoiler tagging — so beware of unmarked spoilers

"Yara, no llores."

• Pretty much any time a queen gets a supportive message from one of her parents, there will be tears involved, from both the queen in question as well as the others as they recount how their own parents were less than accepting.
• Any Time a Queen brings up a Dark and Troubled Past or bad experiences they have had with their sexuality.

RuPaul's Drag Race (US)

Season 1

• Ongina revealing that she has HIV after winning the Viva Glam challenge.
• Rebecca crying in the bathroom in the same episode, depressed and grieving about her friend who is dying of AIDS.
  • Although, her later fumbling answers about the friendship and revealing that they currently aren't close makes it retrospectively seem like an attempt to generate a reason she performed poorly.
• During Bebe's tic-tac lunch with Ru, Bebe recounts life in poverty-ridden Cameroon, where AIDS runs amuck, and implies that she's had to experience several deaths up close while breaking down in tears.

Season 2

• Pandora Boxx recounting nearly being Driven to Suicide because of homophobic bullying and the lingering self-doubt even after the attempt.
• Jujubee crying backstage after the punk rock challenge, saying, "I miss my dad!"
• Sonique crying at the 2nd season reunion show, before coming out as trans.
• Sahara sending Shangela home in the premiere. While Shangela would later return for Season 3 and All Stars 3, Sahara's untimely death ensured that this would be her only season.

Season 3

• A little one. In the "Queens in Space" episode of season 3, Raja choking out tearfully that she doesn't want Delta to be eliminated because Delta is her best friend. Raja is usually quite stoic, and she is often called "fake" by other members of the competition, but there is no denying that Raja is a girl who loves and cares about her friends.
• Alexis' boyfriend in the Marines, who is most likely dead. She's completely given up hope of ever seeing him again.^note Only a TJ in-universe, as by now its a pretty well known secret that Alexis made up the military boyfriend for the episode
• Alexis Mateo almost leaving the competition, looking completely fed up and disillusioned.
• Same episode: poor Yara Sofia, having a breakdown during her lipsync and collapsing to the floor in frustration, crying her eyes out in the middle of the song. The fact that the song was the bouncy "I Think About You" by Patti LaBelle creates a dissonance that somehow makes it even sadder. Before long, everyone else is crying too - especially Yara's opponent and friend, Alexis, who hugs Yara, gets to the back of the stage, and collapses in sobs. Ru makes an effort to reassure Yara, but this is still quite possibly the saddest elimination in the show's herstory.

Season 4

• Sharon Needles' backstory. She grew up in rural Iowa and was horribly bullied, and even the school administrators partially blamed her for bringing it on herself for being different. She ultimately dropped out of high school and left her hometown at a young age. It was only during a stint in Des Moines—Iowa's capital and largest city—that she was exposed to drag queens and other gay people, inspiring her to craft her drag act and eventually settle in Pittsburgh.
• Latrice Royale's speech to RuPaul following her elimination, thanking him for all he has done for the drag community, equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking, as it punctuates Latrice leaving the competition.
  "You have changed my life forever. You have changed the world of drag forever. I love you and respect you so much, and thank you for seeing something special in me. Thank you. (Walks to back of stage to leave, before turning around and raising hand) She is large, in charge, chunky yet funky, the bold and the beautiful, I am Latrice Royale!"
• From the season 4 reunion show, Latrice reading aloud the fan letter from a ten-year-old fan is both this and a Heartwarming Moment.
• Jiggly crying in the 4th season reunion show as she recounts how she discovered that Phi Phi set her up for failure, saying that she let Phi Phi sleep at her apartment when they were first starting out as queens, and was completely devastated that her friend betrayed her.

Season 5

• Season Five's Monica Beverly Hillz coming out as transgender. It was clearly a heavy burden.
• During the Snatch Game critiques of Season 5, Jinkx Monsoon keeps on chanting, "Water off a duck's back. Water off a duck's back". It's heartbreaking enough, but it gets even more so when you realize that she's expecting to be trashed by the judges, just as she was trashed by the other girls (the exceptions being Jade Jolie, Ivy Winters and Alaska) in the work room before the runway. It leads to Tears of Joy when she actually wins the challenge.
• Alaska is critiqued for lacking heart by the judges, and visibly is unable to stop herself from getting emotional. Carries on to Untucked where she expresses some frustration that she's been constantly compared to Sharon, and that being told that she lacked heart by RuPaul deeply hurt her.
• Jinkx admits how close she's gotten to Ivy Winters, and even admits she has a bit of a crush on her. And that very same episode... Ivy is sent home, and Jinkx is devastated.
• When Roxxxy Andrews revealed she and her sister had been left at a bus stop at 3 years old, recalling what the scene looked like and how her mother said she was just going to the store, only to be gone all night, then being a ward of the state for a year before being raised by their grandmother. Just wow.
• Detox relating how his ex-boyfriend, who had been threatening and stalking him, died shortly after they broke up. While he tries not to let it show it's obvious he's still deeply hurt by it.
• While working with gay vets in season 5, Jinkx's partner vaguely references a "medical condition" as a reason why he has trouble bending over. After dancing around it for a bit he eventually confesses that it's AIDS, and that side effects of the medication caused him to gain weight and reduced his mobility. Jinkx assures him that they'll get through it, but after the vet goes off for a bit we see Jinkx lose it for a moment, being disabled herself with narcolepsy.
• In a "Untucked" episode, Alyssa Edwards gets a video message from her estranged father, who apologizes for giving her such a hard time growing up and says that he's proud of her. Both Alyssa and Jinkx recount how they used to pray to God when they were younger to make them different and Coco (who if you recall has almost no love lost for Alyssa due to personal reasons) tearfully begs Alyssa to forgive her father because "there's gonna come a time when [Alyssa] won't be able to".
• It's incredibly heartbreaking to watch how nearly none of the girls are supportive of poor Jinkx. Roxxxy and Coco tend to gang up on her the most. As such, it makes it all the more satisfying when she proves them all wrong, but you'd be forgiven for thinking it wouldn't come true.

Season 6

• During Untucked Laganja Estranja received a very touching message from her parents, telling her that they have come to accept her as a drag queen, and her mother apologizing for avoiding her for so long due to her career choice.
• Trinity revealing that she's HIV-positive and that the reason she came on the show was to be a role model for other young adults with the virus.
• Joslyn getting a video message from her boyfriend who says that they both were effected hard by the death of their 6 year old nephew.

Season 7

• During the Snatch Game episode, Katya discusses her ongoing struggle with anxiety, as well as her previous alcoholism. It's a reminder of the fact that the normally lighthearted Katya has her own demons like everyone else.
• Miss Fame talking about her grandfather, who had been the father figure in her life, and how he was murdered when she was 15 years old. Miss Fame actually starts crying after she stumbles on an old photo of them with his grandmother she had brought with her to the competition.
• Ginger Minj's video message from her father during the live finale, which completely takes her aback. He admits that he's failed Ginger as a father, but that he's always loved his son and been proud of him and hopes that they can reconcile. Ginger admits that he only ever felt loved by his mother growing up.

Season 8

• And season 8 gives us one with the first elimination. The moment Ru announces that the Laila is staying you can see how crushed Naysha is. And when makes her exit you can see her choking back tears as she writes her farewell message. Made even worse when you realize she has been trying out since season 1.
  • Even moreso in the Untucked, the moment she leaves the stage the tears start flowing a she chokes back sobs. As she's led to the workroom, the stage hand assisting her gives a very sad Aside Glance, obviously feeling for Naysha's misery.
• Also in the first episode of season 8. Kim Chi explaining her fear that her mom will discover her drag career. As far as her mom knows, Kim Chi is a makeup artist, and thinks that the pictures of Kim Chi that she saw were just Kim Chi's makeup jobs. Kim Chi states that she doesn't want to let her mom down, and is saddened that she isn't the kind of son an Asian mom would want. This comes through later when she has to dress in an outfit inspired by her mother, and the judges all comment that although it was beautiful, there was an incredible somberness to her runway, likely caused by the turmoil with her mother.
  • When the queens are asked what they'd like to say to their younger selves, Kim Chi breaks down in tears, saying she wished she'd known when she was younger that things would get better, and not to self-harm.
  • Fridge Horror: During the aforementioned mother-homage runway, all of the queens feature photos of themselves with their mothers ... however, Kim Chi's mother's face is blurred out. This could mean that even after filming Kim Chi still did not come out to her mother (so the show could not approach her mother for rights for her face to be shown), or Kim Chi did come out to her mother, and her mother took the news poorly.
    • Confirmed in the reunion that Kim Chi has not told her mother about her career yet, and has no intention of ever telling her.
• Thorgy Thor tells the girls about her hippie parents, in particular, her mother. While young she went off to college and partied all the time, but always called home to see how her parents were getting along. Turns out her mother was dying from cancer and had taken a turn for the worse, but her parents and sister didn't want her to know because they didn't want to take away the 'college experience' from her. Finally, her father tells Thorgy to come home while her mother was literally on her death bed, but the cancer had deteriorated her so much she was already gone mentally, meaning Thorgy never got the chance to give a real goodbye to her. She says to this day she's angry and resentful towards her father and sister for keeping it a secret from her.
• Derrick Barry talking about the falling out she had with her mother, after she came out and the first thing out of Derrick's mother's mouth was effectively if they could keep it a secret from everyone else. Derrick says the experience made him lose a lot of respect for her mother, and that it really left her broken in a way that she still hasn't really recovered from.
• Bob the Drag Queen breaking down in tears as she shares the very real terror she felt when her mother was diagnosed with a rare form of pneumonia that nearly took her life. One day Bob's mother was healthy and active, and suddenly she was practically a skeleton.
  • A tearjerker moment made even more Harsher in Hindsight in 2020 after the season's Ensemble Dark Horse Chi Chi DeVayne's unexpected death. This was also due to a bout of pneunomia, which occurred as a result of complications arising from scleroderma-related kidney failure.
    • Really, any scene with Chi Chi becomes this after her death.

Season 9

• The Season 9 queens also had a heartwrenching discussion about the Pulse night club shooting.
  • Trinity Taylor is from Orlando and used to be a regular, and while she wasn't there the night of the shooting, her coworker lost her daughter.
  • Cynthia Lee Fontaine was supposed to perform that night, but had to reschedule, and a friend of hers went to the club just to see her. When he found out she wasn't there, he decided to stay anyway and enjoy the night, and was killed for it.
• Charlie Hides talking about burying all of her best friends in The '80s due to AIDS.
• Eureka's medical evacuation. Oh God, Eureka's medical evacuation. Eureka was crying, the other queens were crying, Farrah can only choke out an anguished Little "No" between sobs, hell even Meghan Trainor was starting to tear up.
  • Becomes a Heartwarming Moment, when RuPaul offers Eureka a place in Season 10, which she happily accepts.
  • Season 10 explores this further when Eureka reveals that the she had to have surgery and after a rough recovery process, she wasn't sure if she would be able to return to the show or even dance again.
• Despite the controversy around Maskgate, Valentina's downfall is heartbreaking. She clearly wanted to be in the competition, and ends up in tears on both the main stage and in the confessional when she realizes how badly she ruined her shot at glory. Ru's final words to departing queens are usually encouragement, but Valentina pissed off Ru so much that Ru's dismissal is cold, hitting the tearjerker home:
  Rupaul: Valentina, I thought you had the stuff to go all the way. Now, sashay away.
• Nina Bo'nina Brown's final episode: she laments sending home Valentina and blames herself for having the latter in the bottom two with her. It was at that point that the queens completely exit the discussion and ignore her after Nina understandably admits that she did not feel victorious winning a lipsync against a queen who was clearly devastated and lacked the will to fight, where RuPaul then told the girls to never give up. Even in the Makeover Challenge, it became evident that her creative drive also tanked. Come the runway, Ru's words become an Ironic Echo for Nina, as she's pitted against Shea, a queen who has been rooting for her since day one, and decides to throw the lipsync, her inner saboteur and depression winning over her. When Shea is told to stay, she literally break downs while we see Nina's makeover sister also break down back stage, all while Nina herself gracefully accepts defeat. Through Ru's final words to Nina were ridden with love, seeing her enter the werk room pumped in the beginning and later sashay away completely dejected due to her self-doubt is jarring.
• At the Season 9 Finale, Ru prompts Shea to talk about her family, of whom in particular, her relationship with her father and his cancer diagnosis was discussed during the season. You can see Shea struggle to hold back tears when she says that not only did her father die of his cancer mere weeks before the season aired, her sister also died of cancer barely a month later.
• Sasha, Valentina and Shea admitting that they've had problems with eating disorders. Valentina mentions that before she came on the show, she promised her mother that she would eat every day, even though sometimes she feels like she's forcing herself to do so.

Season 10

• Vanessa Vanjie Mateo being eliminated in the first episode of Season 10. Of course, any elimination is tough, but Vanessa's heartbreak is palpable, as she can't even bring herself to look at the judges, even as Ru assures her that she has made her drag family proud, especially her drag mother, season 3 second runner-up Alexis Mateo. Backstage, she ends up choking back tears as she hopes she hasn't disappointed anyone.
  • Her memetic exit from the runway is also this; she later revealed she did it so she could keep her composure instead of breaking down into tears.
• Kalorie has a similar reaction following her elimination. As the first queen on the show from New Mexico, she clearly feels a lot of pressure to do well, and as she gives her elimination interview she begins to cry, fearing she let her state down by being eliminated second.
• While stories of familial strife and hardship are, unfortunately, nothing new within the queer community (and the show itself by extension), Dusty's backstory is especially gut-wrenching. She has completely cut her family out of her life to the point that they had no idea she was going to be on the show, and likely still don't at the time of it airing. What makes this especially heartbreaking is that this is the good option for her relationship with them, as before she left her family, they sent her to conversion therapy and even went so far as to have her exorcised, as they felt her homosexuality was the result of possession.
• In keeping with Season 10's tearjerking elimination, Dusty Ray Bottoms' tugs many heartstrings with her episode 4 elimination, especially as she recounts on Untucked how she would watch the show at the lowest volume so that her anti-gay parents wouldn't realize what she was watching, and how the show made her come to terms with who she is...which apparently wasn't enough to survive the show.
• Blair St. Clair takes the cake when she reveals that her first sexual experience was being raped in college in episode 6. The trauma visibly shakes her and everyone on the stage, even eliciting the Vixen's Mama Bear side ("I can't wait to find that motherfucker"). It doesn't help when Blair is eliminated in the same episode. It was no coincidence that a phone number for sexual assault survivors was aired as soon as the show went to commercials.
• At the Reunion, Asia is clearly distraught after The Vixen leaves. When Ru is dismissive of The Vixen's feelings about her conflict with Eureka throughout the season, Asia is completely unable to hold herself back from tearing into Ru for it. This coincided with a horrific incident around the same time where racist fans threatened to burn Asia alive. This and her clash with Ru at the Reunion led to moments like this, where Asia's fashion effectively morphed into protest statements overnight.

Season 11

• Mercedes discussing both her difficulties with being a Muslim immigrant and getting placed on the US's no-fly list, and the subsequent strain of performing and traveling under those conditions leading to a stroke which left her wheelchair bound and paralyzed on the entire right side of her body. It's made clear that the anxiety of all of this affected her performance and led to her being placed in the bottom two in the second episode. The judges were quick to say that she should be trying to make her circumstances work for her, but it's incredibly hard to not sympathize with the hardship she's been put through. When Mercedes talks about it in the workroom, many of the queens are visibly shaken and angry on her behalf.
• In Episode 3 Honey Davenport's elimination. After the six-way lip-sync, Ru goes down the line of queens and tells each of them to shantay, each time with a zoom in on Honey's face getting more and more anxious, and when the last queen is told to stay, you can actually see on Honey's face how heartbroken she is. Made worse by her actually collapsing to the ground and wailing in pain after leaving the stage on Untucked.
• Yvie's disease, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. While it lets her be very flexible and pull off some extremely great stunts on the runway, it is also slowly degrading her body. She's always in pain and often has to cover it up, her joints can easily pop out of place if she's not careful, and her entire career has a ticking clock on it because eventually it will be too much for her to perform. She's a badass for going as hard as she does and putting on such a brave face all the time, but it's daunting to imagine that looming threat over your passion and livelihood.
• Silky and Yvie really tended to bring out the worst in each other, making for the most infamous feud of the season. It hits a low point in the makeover challenge, when Ru asks each contestant and their partner who should go home, and Silky not only picks Yvie (natch) but flat-out tells the judges that America's next drag superstar needs to be kind to people, and that Yvie isn't kind or nice. Yvie looks humiliated and crushed, struggling hard to not burst into tears at that shady comment, and doesn't do a very good job. (Thankfully, Silky and Yvie make peace in the next episode, and end the season as friends.)
  • In a similar vein, there's the reunion. Clips of snarky comments about Scarlet Envy and her silly diva behavior bring up some very ill feelings on Brooke Lynn's part, as Brooke Lynn claimed at a viewing party that "the entire cast hated her." Brooke Lynn clarifies that "you just rubbed me the wrong way," and in a particular awkward moment, only Ra'Jah O'Hara will back her up, making it look like mostly Brooke Lynn's personal vendetta. At the end of the show, Scarlet is the bigger person, and endorses Brooke Lynn going into the finale and admits her admiration for her. Look close, and you'll see a deep sadness in her eyes, indicating that she was a lot more hurt than she let on. Who would've guessed Scarlet would wind up being The Woobie? (Again, Brooke Lynn and Scarlet were able to make peace off the show.)
• Nina West's story about how a hate group on her college campus harassed her and tried to break into her dorm room. She had to hide in the girl's dorm for two weeks. Even worse, this was around the time of the Matthew Shepard Murder, a high-profile Homophobic Hate Crime.

Season 12

• The Shocking Elimination of Rock M Sakura, who'd been predicted by fans to be a top contender. She gets to the back of the stage, gives a brief speech, and just barely makes it off camera before loudly bursting into tears.
  Rock M Sakura: Never give up on your dreams. And tell yourself that you love yourself.
• In episode 5, some of the queens reveal some major Parental Issues, with Jackie's mother forbidding her from dancing as a child and not being supportive of her drag career, and Widow's last interaction with her mother before she died in a car crash being an argument.
• Crystal reveals in the Madonna Rusical that her father has Parkinson's that has gotten very bad very fast and how painful it is to see the man who taught her how to be crafty be unable to sit up. In the talking head that follows, Crystal is unable to speak because she's too choked up.
• Episode 9 is bound to tug anyone's heartstrings. During critiques, Jackie Cox explains what her runway look - a stars & stripes-themed kaftan and hijab, reflecting her Persian heritage - means to her, and goes into detail on her feelings about the treatment of queer people in the Middle East, and the treatment of Middle Eastern people in America. Even for a politically-themed episode, it is a sobering speech.
  Jackie: When the Muslim ban happened... [starts crying] ...it really destroyed... a lot of my faith in this country. And it really hurt my family. And that's so wrong to me! And I had to show America that you can be LGBT and from the Middle East and there's gonna be some complicated shit about that, and that's okay!
  • In light of this speech, her performance in the resulting lip sync, to Katy Perry's "Firework," carries a ton of subtext to it, with Jackie proudly whipping her kaftan around the stage to a bright positivity anthem. In this political climate, it's a powerful image, and it's especially not lost on guest judge Jeff Goldblum, who starts tearing up on camera. Also a Heartwarming Moment.
    Jackie: I'm exploding out on that stage because I'm feeling the weight of everyone who's ever been told they need to go back home where they came from, and I'm here to let them know that baby, you're a firework. And you have a place right here in America.
  • Widow Von Du finally gets eliminated here, who's struggled hard in the competition and was completely at her wits end by now, getting openly frustrated during critiques and crying the whole way to the back after the lip sync. After such a strong start, her downfall is terribly sad.

Season 13

• Having been filmed only a few months removed from the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the nation, the queens inevitably touched upon that subject. Kandy discussed how her background of being Afro-Latino put her in a lot of danger, Tamisha reminded everyone how despite the protests bringing a lot of attention, trans black people were still at risk on a daily basis, and LaLa mentioned that the Wendy's where Rayshard Brooks was killed at was only a few minutes away from her place, with her tearing up thinking about how it could have been her. Becomes heartwarming however when it reminds the queens of what they have to fight for and why they choose to protest even in the midst of the pandemic.
• In the few episodes they were together, Kandy developed a crush on Joey Jay. As such, it was quite heartbreaking seeing her reaction to the latter's elimination.
• Episode 6. Let's face it, there wasn't a soul that wanted Tamisha Iman to go home this early - not the other queens, not the fans; hell, even the judges were a little conflicted about it, but she's just struggling too much in the physical challenges. During the episode, Tamisha even revealed that not only has she been recovering from cancer, but she's been using an ostomy bag through the competition and didn't want the other girls to know (in fact, they didn't know until watching the episode). Tamisha had built up so much respect from fans and peers as an veteran Queen and survivor, that watching her leave just hurts. Kandy Muse had just mended fences with Tamisha; now here she is having to send her home in the lipsync, and she's bawling her eyes out over it.
• Denali's apology to Kandy in the Untucked of the Makeover challenge. The queens were given the dreaded "Who should go home question" to which Denali (who was in the bottom and sent home that night) answered Kandy despite Kandy giving a strong look. Kandy rightfully defends herself to which Denali makes no effort to counter. When Kandy brings it up in Untucked Denali explains in tears that she knows that her and Olivia's (her partner) looks were the weakest of the night but was not going to throw either of them under the bus. Denali added that she didn't believe her own words and only said Kandy's name because she knew Kandy was safe and still the guilt was making her physically ill. When Kandy earnestly tells Denali that it still made her upset all Denali can reply with is a tearful "As you should be."
• Depending on how sympathetic you are, Utica's infamous roast can count, in a way - specifically, Utica's complete cluelessness of how terribly she came off. Have you ever thought you made a great impression in public, only to look back later and realized you just made a fool of yourself? Well, that's exactly what happened to Utica, who publicly apologized for her fat-shaming humor right as the proceeding episode of Untucked went on the air. Said Untucked saw Utica pack up her things with absolutely no self-awareness and comprehension of how badly she'd embarrassed herself, to the point that she was looking forward to doing another roast in the future. For someone who was already kind of an outsider, Utica's downfall is especially depressing.
• The finale has an incredibly emotional tribute to Season 8's Chi Chi De Vayne, who sadly passed away in August 2020, featuring Drag Race alumni telling about their fond memories with Chi Chi. It's hard to get through the tribute without crying, especially once Thorgy begins getting visibly emotional.

Season 14

• As Kerri reveals how difficult it was coming out as trans to her parents, it suddenly triggers some bad memories in Kornbread (who up to that point had been one of the liveliest queens of the season) as she recalls not being accepted by her family, to the point where she can't even think straight and has to step out to clear her head. Thankfully she doesn't hold it against Kerri and goes back to doing her makeup but it's still a clearly tough moment for her.
• Episode 5 starts on a heartbreaking note, as frontrunner and fan-favorite Kornbread shockingly leaves the competition due to an injury sustained from the previous challenge. While her exit message does have the touches of humor that helped make her so popular, it still sets a somber tone overall.
  • Kornbread's exit hits Willow the hardest considering how much Kornbread helped her the past few episodes and how much they bonded.

Season 15

• Sugar and Spice (aka the first real-life twins on the show) are pitted against each other in the third lip-sync of the show and it's clear having to fight each other to stay in the competition is difficult for both. Despite a spirited and very team-centric number where they both give their all to help their twin, Sugar is ultimately eliminated, leaving everyone, including Mistress Isabelle Brooks (who after finding them annoying in the premier but eventually becoming fond of them, would take them in to her drag family), and especially Spice, devastated.
• Like with the Pulse discussion in season 9, the Queens talking about the anti-drag legislation hits hard.
• Anetra, Sasha, and Mistresses backstories. They all had their mothers turn their back on their children for doing drag and being gay. Anetra's is even worse because her mother was initially accepting, but then said Anetra had to leave the house a week later. Talk about a cruel Hope Spot.

Season 16

• Mirage's elimination. After a poor showing in the RDR Live acting challenge and not knowing the lyrics to Cher's "Dark Lady" in the lip-sync for your life, Mirage is the second eliminated queen from the season. As soon as she's told to sashay away, Mirage starts uncontrollably sobbing, drops down to her knees, and apologises to the judges. After Ru gives her some encouragement, she shuffles off the stage in defeat, with her fellow queens bawling in the background.
• Q revealing their HIV diagnosis.

RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars

All Stars 1

• In real life, the death of season 2 contestant Sahara Davenport.
  • The episode of All Stars where Manila talks to Latrice about Sahara and shows off a photo of the two of them together is also a tearjerker in retrospect. Manila and Sahara were a couple in real life.
• It is so, so disheartening to see Pandora Boxx - Miss Congeniality, mind you - look so dejected after being teamed up with the infamous Mimi Imfurst. She looks so depressed that it's kind of a damper on the season premiere by itself.^note Pandy later explained that it wasn't even Mimi she had a problem with - actually, she considered Mimi a rather accomplished queen - she just felt like herself and Mimi were being set up for failure by being teamed together, in comparison to the other teams. Couple that with how ill she was during filming, plus the hate she got on Twitter for it, and it's no wonder that Pandy considers All Stars 1 an Old Shame.
• The second half of All Stars Untucked: Episode 2. Chad gets a video message from his estranged father, who he hadn't seen in twenty-five years. Tear jerking enough by itself, as several of the queens start crying. Unfortunately, some of the queens' daddy issues come to light. Yara Sofia starts breaking down, and Chad comforts her. After this, Manila states that she feels unworthy in her dad's eyes because she's a drag queen. Finally, Latrice states that it's important to reconcile with their fathers, and how she never got that opportunity; her father died shortly after she was released from jail. You will need Kleenex during this episode.
• Jujubee and Raven having to lipsync against each other in the penultimate episode of All Stars after saying that they can't stand the thought of having to do so, and the two of them can barely get through it without choking up. There's no dancing, no big theatrical moves; just two friends holding hands, unsure of what to do, and bawling their eyes out. It's such an emotional moment that Ru can't bring himself to eliminate either queen, instead allowing them both to advance to the finale.

All Stars 2

• It's sad that the good vibes among the queens in All Stars 2 were brought down significantly by Ru's announcement that they'd be eliminating each other. None of them are particularly happy with the twist, and both Roxxxy and Tatiana are heartbroken that they have to make a choice like that. When Roxxxy eliminates Coco, she actually bursts into tears, and neither she nor the other queens seem that happy come the final dance.
  • Adore breaking down backstage after Michelle reads her outfit and she ends up in the bottom 3. The fact that Michelle basically tore Adore down for just wearing an outfit that's typical for her style is pretty heartbreaking; she says it takes her back to being "baby Adore" and makes her feel like she doesn't belong.
  • In a Periscope video after the episode had aired, Adore confesses that Michelle's critiques were not what made the decision, just part of the factor. Guest judge Raven-Symone being incredibly harsh to her for some reason, and in Danny's personal life, he had been dealing with depression stemming from his father passing away and his boyfriend suddenly breaking up with him. He says that part of the reason he decided to come onto All Stars was that it would keep him occupied as he worked through his grief, only to realize that it wasn't helping.
  • Following the hardships of the first episode and her inability to persuaded to stay, knowing her heart isn't in it, Adore quits before Snatch Game. Especially sad since she was an early favorite to win and all the other queens loved her, leaving one to wonder What Could Have Been had she stuck it out.
• Roxxxy, Detox, and Ginger discussing the Pulse Nightclub massacre at the All Stars 2 reunion. All three of them had first started performing in drag at Pulse so the shooting hit them pretty hard. Season 1's Jade Sotomayor even lost a cousin in the massacre. Ginger is in tears when she recalls meeting the other queens there and Detox describes the experience as losing a home.
• Alyssa and her sister, Tabatha talking about their Mom and how they were doing the competition on the anniversary of her death. Their performance was a dedication to her.
• Along those same lines, Detox and her sister talk about their dad, how he died a year ago before the season and how he wasn't always super supportive of Detox doing drag.

All Stars 3

• Kennedy discussing her feelings of neglect at conventions. She points out that whenever Drag Race queens are performing at meet and greets, the lines for the other queens are always full, while only one or two people will come to visit Kennedy, and always as an afterthought after going to meet other queens. Kennedy clearly feels unloved by fans in the Drag Race community.
• The Finale: Rather than Ru choosing the top queens of the season, it's revealed that each of the eliminated queens will vote on who from the remaining four queens they want to see in the Top 2. Despite Shangela performing statistically the best and expressing a strong desire to win, the jury chooses Kennedy and Trixie as the Top 2, believing they need the win more. The look on Shangela's face as she realizes she's lost despite doing everything she possibly could do to get that crown is utterly heartbreaking.
  • Compare her expressions during her eliminations. In Season 2 Shangela was just happy to have made it onto the show, while in Season 3 she's proud of having fought so hard and proved herself. In All Stars 3, however, she's absolutely devastated, getting blindsided by the jury twist while being within inches of the crown, likely knowing that this was her last hurrah and she's not getting any more chances.
• Chi Chi's elimination, with Ru's Speech on how she'll always be an all star, becomes this following her death.

All Stars 4

• Episode 3: the fall of Gia Gunn. After Gia's utterly disastrous Snatch Game performance (so bad that she even derailed Latrice's performance), and everyone having enough of Gia's shady, drama-queen behavior, it's obvious Gia's number is up, and Trinity isn't even coy about wanting to eliminate her. Manila sits down before the lip sync to hear Gia out, and Gia just starts weeping, letting out all her complicated feelings about being an open trans woman on the show. These are obviously valid feelings, but it's clear from her withdrawn behavior that it's not just that - she knows full well that despite all her shit-stirring tactics, it's over for her, and this time she has no one to blame but herself. You wouldn't think you'd get a Cry for the Devil moment for one of the show's most notorious contestants, but it's sad to watch Gia looking so utterly defeated, just waiting for the inevitable.
• In episode 4, Latrice's elimination. While Monique is torn during the deliberation due to having to choose between the two queens she worked with on the challenge (not to mention even outside of the challenge itself, Latrice is... well, Latrice, and as Monique points out a huge inspiration to all black queens in and outside the show, and Monét is not only Monique's Season 10 sister, but maybe one of her closest friends from said season), the moment that takes the cake is Manila not winning the lip sync and realizing that this means Latrice will likely be going home due to her track record. Every remaining moment she has on camera in the episode is spent sobbing.

All Stars 5

• Ongina's elimination is just heartbreaking to watch. She came into the competition as one of the strongest competitors from the original season and a highly anticipated queen who many had high hopes for. However, after a poor showing in the reading challenge and being almost up for elimination in the first episode, Ongina quickly begins to doubt herself and get in her head, worrying that, since her season was over 10 years ago, she just can't keep up with the newer queens. When in the next episode she once again does poorly, a devastated Ongina practically begs the other queens to choose her to be eliminated, since she feels she doesn't deserve to stay in the competition over the others, even going as far as to choose herself during voting. For someone normally as fun and positive as Ongina, seeing her so crushed is really sad.
• While we know Jujubee's mom left, the full story is awful. When Jujubee was 15, her dad died and her mom ran off with some dude. She was taken in by her aunt, while her sisters were in foster care. She lost contact with them for five years.

All Stars 6

• Oh, Silky - How the Mighty Have Fallen. After being designated the villain by fans during season 11 for being loud and obnoxious (it should be noted that Silky was, in fact, forthcoming to the press about the racism and body-shaming she faced from "fans"), Silky's been far more restrained and unable to bring her usual gusto, for fear that she'll have to face that reception again. The result? She's eliminated only three episodes in, after a weak showing in the commercial challenge, and a heartbroken Silky winds up getting a group hug from the whole cast.
  Silky: [halfway up the aisle] I just wanna say this. I pray this prayer every morning - to be the head, not the tail, the beginning, not the end, [bursts into tears] the peacemaker, not the drama, and all things shall be added unto you.
• Even though she was not crying or upset, and she was satisfied with her decision, it was hard watching A'keria decline to return to the competition. Being the top 4 from her season, and a fantastic lipsyncer, it was just so sad to watch her close the book on this chapter.
• Some of the stories the queens told for the C.U.N.T. Monologues challenge were quite touching (although they all take a turn into heartwarming by the end) :
  • Trinity getting catfished by a guy who says watching her on Season 6 saved his life after he discovered he was also HIV positive and almost committed suicide.
  • Kylie failing to be converted by military school, only to be taken out and put in drag and feeling accepted as feminine for the first time in her life.
    • Michelle during critiques even mentions with a crack in her voice how sad it is knowing there are parents out there who still try and "fix" their gay children instead of just loving them unconditionally.
  • Ginger being caught by her step-father putting on her mom's shoes and feeling like a disappointment, only for Ginger's mom to give her a pair of women's shoes of her own to show she accepted Ginger for who she was.
• Trinity's entire mood during episode 11, when Eureka! gets brought back as she knows she has the worst track record of the cast now, being just completed defeated to the point the other queens call her out on it. Worse was after Eureka! wins the challenge and the fear sets in for Trinity, at one point breaking down crying during deliberation as she just mumbles "I was so close" over and over, the heartbreak in her demeanor is obvious that she made it to the top four only for the twist of the season to eliminate her.

All Stars 7

• In the penultimate episode, there is a tie between Trinity and Jaida. Since Monet has earned the most stars, she is declared by Ru as the tiebreaker. The defeated look on Jaida's face says it all, since she instantly knows that Monet will pick her fellow twinner. It is especially hard to see Jaida looking this defeated since she is usually the ray of sunshine in the Werkroom.
• Also from episode 11, Yvie's frank discussions of having Ehler's Danlos syndrome will hurt your heart. What was already a lingering threat to her health on season 11 is now critical a few years later, with constant pain in her joints and her ability to perform nearly gone, and she can barely talk about it to Ru and Michelle without getting choked up. For the talent show, she attempts a dancing showcase, and it was probably a huge challenge to muster up even a brief performance. (Yvie confirmed off the show that she mainly did it because it may be one of her last chances to dance at all.) Seeing one of the franchise's most eccentric performers face a future where performing is no longer physically possible is incredibly sad.
• For the talent show, Raja talks about how her dance is a tribute to her parents, who passed away before the season aired. At the end of the episode, there is an In Memorian for Raja's mom, who passed away a year before the season aired.

All Stars 8

• In modern Drag Race, it's become more common for queens to depart the competition when their mental health is being compromised, and it's never easy television. Somehow, it hits especially hard when said queen is lovable goofball and previous Miss Congeniality, Heidi N. Closet, who peaces out of the competition after a huge Werk Room blowup in episode 5. It's such a shame to see someone so normally spirited gradually lose that spirit over the course of a season, and have it end like this.
• Mrs. Kasha Davis's exit quote from her elimination, "There's always time for kindness!" which she delivers while holding back tears.

RuPaul's Drag Race UK

UK Series 1

• Blu talking about being unable to marry her partner because gay marriage was illegal in Northern Ireland. (Heartwarming in Hindsight since it became legal right around the time the episode aired!) And then there's Divina, in her mid-thirties and a little older than the others, talking about how difficult it was being queer when she was young, and watching values slowly become better nowadays.
• Baga Chipz and her mum in episode 7, the family makeover challenge. Baga's plan is to do them up like the Kardashians, but it doesn't look right on her mum, and during critiques Baga makes very unflattering comments to the judges about how it's harder to work with a woman of a certain age... amongst other, even less flattering things. The other queens, and Michelle Visage, are vocal about how uncomfortable it was to see Baga throw her mum under the bus like that, and Baga tries to smooth it over, but it's hard not to feel for her mum when she starts crying in the Werk Room in front of everyone. Altogether, it's pretty uncomfortable television.
  • Baga has a chance to explain herself and her Parental Issues in the finale, on What's The Tee? with Ru and Michelle. It turns out Baga's been somewhat estranged from her mum for much of her life, since Baga's mum got a new partner and spent most of her time with her other children, so Baga was largely raised by her grandmother. According to Baga, she'd spoken to her mum seven times over the past decade, and even though she refuses to be seen as a victim, she's clearly a little hurt and rejected about it. Just a sad situation all around.

UK Series 2

• Considering the hype she had coming into the Werk Room, the downfall of Joe Black in episode 1 is really sad. She forgets the words in the middle of the lip-sync, and just looks completely defeated as her mind goes blank. Especially sad as she started the song off pretty well, and might've been a match for Bimini Bon-Boulash if she hadn't tripped up.
• Veronica Green's story. She won the Rusical challenge, and was a strong competitor - but then filming had to be stopped at the end of episode 4 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The lockdown special shows that Veronica became severely depressed during the seven month hiatus, to the stage where she could not muster the energy to leave her bed most days. She managed to get through this with the help of her boyfriend, and was genuinely excited about returning to film the season. And THEN she tested positive for coronavirus the day before filming was to resume, and had to drop out. The rest of the queens are also shocked and devastated about this, acknowledging what a strong queen Veronica is.

UK Series 3

• Anubis breaking down in tears after receiving criticism for her "My Favourite Thing" look, based on sea creatures. She reveals that the look was in dedication to her father, as the last time she got to see him before he died was when he took her to an aquarium; her drag name also comes from her father being an Egyptian man, so despite her family circumstances, she clearly holds him in high regard. She ended up losing the lip-sync anyway.
• The usually Fun Personified Choriza May breaking down in tears in the premiere due to the isolation she felt during the COVID-19 pandemic — exacerbated by the fact that her English boyfriend, for whom she moved to the UK, was posted back to Spain for work — was a relatable and emotional moment for anyone struggling through the harsh reality of 2021.
• Victoria Scone injuring her knee and being told to drop out of the competition on doctor's orders. There was a lot of hope and pressure put on her to succeed as the only cisgender woman drag queen to be featured on a season of Drag Race, and the other queens (and RuPaul himself) kept talking about how groundbreaking and inspiring her presence on the show is; Victoria getting into the "Lipsync for the Win" was clearly a sign that she was one to watch. Her landing awkwardly on her knee during that lip-sync, however, is that cost her in the end; for the entirety of episode 2, she's trying her utmost to keep up during the dance challenge, and post-departure interviews have her express how frustrated she is at how things turned out. After announcing her unceremonious exit, Ru, in an effort to let everyone down gently, was sure to point out that we may not have seen the last of Victoria, but regardless, this took the air out of a lot of fans' sails.
• Veronica Green being eliminated in episode 3; having just gotten out of a horrible depression, she admitted later that she wasn't really in the right place mentally to compete at her best, and her fatal flaw - time management problems - was exacerbated by her stopping what she was doing to help other queens with their sewing. She ended up crying over the judge's critiques, and how this felt like she shouldn't have stopped to help anyone.
  • To add on, Veronica posted on the night this episode aired explaining that she'd basically gone broke to make her outfits for Season 2, and had to scrape her wardrobe for this season together on a shoestring because she hadn't had a chance to make any more money in drag yet due to the extended lockdowns in the UK.^note Season 3 was also taped at the same time Season 2 was still airing, so she probably wouldn't have been able to bump her fee up yet even if gigs were permitted. She then admits that in hindsight she probably shouldn't have returned for this season at all.
• Scarlett revealing her mother's chronically poor health, and the realisation that she won't be around for much longer was pure raw emotion and deeply upsetting to witness. Kitty's warm, big sisterly support when Scarlett came to her to discuss the matter was equally tear-jerking, though for more heart-warming reasons.

UK Series 4

• Pixie Polite discussing her mixed feelings being in the competition given that her ex-partner was a previous contestant: series 2 fan-favourite, Tia Kofi. She describes the relationship ending due to a "mistake" on her part, and despite them still being friends now, it's clear that there's a lot of upset still.
• Cheddar Gorgeous explaining her outfit in the "Tickled Pink" runway as being a tribute to activist group Act-Up, being decorated with the pink triangle (a symbol of the persecution and murder of queer people during the holocaust) and the phrase "Silence = Death". Pixie Polite chimes in that the lack of care given to people with AIDS was a genocide, and talks about how she knows older queer people who don't have any friends their own age due to losing them all to the AIDS crisis. It's a very sobering (yet important) discussion; notably, when Cheddar is on the runway, there are no judge's comments played.
• Series 2 Cherry Valentine's unexpected death in 2022 had an In Memoriam at the beginning of series 4.

Canada's Drag Race

Canada Season 1

• Anastarzia Anaquway's story of her Near-Death Experience in episode 2. She opens up in the Werk Room about the rampant homophobia and anti-LGBT hate crimes in the Bahamas and how several of her friends were murdered simply for being gay. In fact, Starzy was the victim of one herself, being shot multiple times upon arriving home one night. She actually drove herself to the hospital, passed out from blood loss upon arrival, and overheard doctors saying that they didn't think she would survive. After Starzy healed from the incident, she immediately moved to Canada, requested and was granted asylum, and never looked back. She still has a bullet in her kidney from the attack. Damn.

Canada Season 2

• Judge Brad Goreski gets unusually candid in the prom makeover episode when he recounts how his own prom night was ruined when a bunch of boys were waiting outside to beat him up and he had to sneak out the back. What makes it especially heartbreaking is that he was wearing a lovely purple fleece blazer that his mother made for him, but because Kids Are Cruel, he couldn't just enjoy his night.

Other Spinoffs

Drag Race Down Under

• Art Simone's Shocking Elimination in episode two. She came to the show as one of the biggest names in the Australian drag scene, and someone who had already worked with Drag Race before, with most of her fellow competitors marking her as the one to beat. Then, after a disastrous Snatch Game performance, she winds up in the bottom 2 and gets sent home, with all the other queens' jaws dropping. Art herself is absolutely devastated, crying during the entire elimination and while leaving her mirror message, saying that she felt like she will never live down the humiliation and that she had failed all of her fans and supporters.
  Art Simone: They all wanted me so strongly to be here...
  Producer: But you were here.
  Art Simone: That means nothing.

Italia Season 1

• Across the franchise, there is always at least one queen each season who has experienced rejection from family, but it fast becomes clear that almost all the queens competing on the Italian iteration have had terrible experiences with their parents, due to their sexuality and drag lifestyle, which sadly demonstrates Italy's less accepting levels of LGTBQI+ tolerance compared to the other nations featured on the show.

France 1

• For their lipsync, Lolita Banana and La Big Bertha performed 'Corps' by Iseult. It is a dramatic song about finding acceptance in one's body and free oneself from other people judgements. Lolita and La Big Bertha made a moving performance, stripping naked to expose their body flaws to all and hugging each other in a comforting embrace. The jury (and the public) were moved to tears.

Philippines 1

• Similar to Italia, a lot of the queens experienced hardships growing up as gays in a relatively conservative and religious country like the Philippines, be it being shunned by family, or constant bullying from classmates. It really shows how despite the active drag scene in the country, it still has a long way to go in terms of acceptance.
• Turing's elimination is just heartbreaking, as she struggled throughout the competition with coming to terms with her size, and coupled with her lackluster performance in the Rusical, made her nearly faint from the stress. As she sashays away, she lets the tears flow while apologizing to Jiggly for letting her (and many other big Filipino queens) down, before the others send her off with a group hug.

Canada Vs The World Season 1

• Icesis Couture, who came right back into the competition a year after winning her season, comes into the Werk Room in episode 4 completely exhausted and looking on the verge of a breakdown. Realizing she's working herself to the point of threatening her mental health, she leaves the competition right in the middle of the episode. Silky, who's gotten more than her fair share of public pressure over her three seasons, immediately understands her struggle.
  Victoria Scone: [horrified] This is not actually happening. [cries] Why is she doing this?
  Rita Baga: [resigned] She can't do it anymore.

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