RuPaul's Drag Race star: ‘I love Paul Burrell – I’m his gay best friend’
13.01.2024 - 05:47
/ ok.co.uk
After baring all on ITV1’s The Real Full Monty: Jingle Balls last month, Nick Collier – better known as RuPaul’s Drag Race UK star Ella Vaday – found himself forging a rather unlikely showbiz bromance. Nick, who got his kit off to raise awareness of cancer prevention alongside rugby hunk Ben Cohen and TOWIE legends Gemma Collins and Pete Wicks, struck up a close friendship with former royal butler Paul Burrell. “I wasn’t sure I would get on with someone like Paul, but we absolutely did,” he laughs.
“We had a bromance!” Asked whether Paul spilled any royal tea, Nick says, “No, he didn’t tell me any secrets. And if he did, I wouldn’t be able to tell you because I’d have to kill you.” Nick, 35, joined the all-star line-up in tribute to his mum, Donna, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, 10 years after battling thyroid cancer. Following chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a mastectomy, Donna, 59, has thankfully beaten the disease once again.
But although The Real Full Monty was a huge success, Essex-born Nick tells OK! he was initially wary about taking part. “It was daunting going into a show with people I’ve been watching on TV long before I was on TV myself,” he says. “But I had so much fun.
“I loved Pete and I got on brilliantly with Paul. I love him to bits. He only came out a few years ago and I felt like his gay best friend.
We could take the p**s out of each other. Any time he was being stupid, I’d just be like, ‘Oh, Paul, shut up!’ “One night me, Ben and Paul went to [gay pub] The Admiral Duncan in Soho and had the best night ever. Paul had never been there and we had a few drinks.” Nick shot to fame in the third series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK as his alter-ego, Ella Vaday, in which he finished runner-up.
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