Drag Race Winner Kita Mean 'MY SURGERY NIGHT MARE'

Botched skin-removal operations have left the Kiwi reality TV champion, aka Nick Nash, physically scarred but mentally liberated

- Haylay McLarin

One scar runs from elbow to elbow across Nick Nash’s chest, a line that’s already fading. The other is an even scarier battle scar – running from hip to hip, the uneven trail looks like a cruel, crooked smile.

It’s a far cry from the toned, taut stomach the award-winning drag artist – better known as Kita Mean, the inaugural champion of RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under in 2021 – aspired to, but at least his mental scars are starting to heal.

Nick, 36, suffered complications from skin-removal surgery in Thailand, where the operation was far cheaper than having it done in New Zealand. However, he is now facing more corrective surgery, months of lost work and bills that add up to more than what it would’ve cost to have the original op done by a local provider.

‘The wound was opening. I was hunched over in pain’

“Lying in hospital in Thailand, I tried to tell myself that people go through hard times in this world, so I wouldn’t get too down on myself,” Nick confesses to Woman’s Day. “But I was thinking, ‘What if I die? What if I never heal from it?’”

Having had keyhole gastric sleeve surgery in November 2019 Nick didn’t hesitate in returning to Thailand for follow-up surgery to remove excess skin.

He tells, “Before I had my gastric sleeve, I had major social anxiety and one of my absolute scariest things to do was go to the supermarket – for so many reasons. It was so brightly lit and I always felt self-conscious because I had given up on my image outside of drag.