‘I DIDN'T KNOW DRAG RACE WOULD HAVE SUCH A HUGE IMPACT'

AS HE APPROACHES HIS 60TH BIRTHDAY WE LOOK AT THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE WORLD’S FAVOURITE DRAG QUEEN

- RHONA MERCER

RuPaul might be turning 60 next week, but the world’s most fabulous drag queen is showing no signs of slowing down. On the contrary, the presenter and judge on the wildly successful RuPaul’s Drag Race has never been more in demand.

But the star didn’t grow up in the world of showbiz. A child of divorced parents, RuPaul Andre Charles lived with his mother and three sisters in San Diego, and with idols such as Jane Fonda and Diana Ross, it wasn’t long before he started to experiment with cross-dressing. “I was always RuPaul. Always. Even as a kid I would dress up in my sisters’ clothes, in cowboy outfits, in sailor outfits. I loved putting on different costumes,” he explains.

In his first step towards fame, RuPaul attended the Northside School of Performing Arts in Atlanta, but didn’t graduate. However, he formed a band there called RuPaul And The U-Hauls and by 1982 they started to appear on local TV programme The American Music Show.