The twin drag queens Sugar and Spice have been officially separated on the latest episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and the fans were shook along with the twins themselves.

Sugar was eliminated in the fourth episode, leaving her sister Spice behind. While the two worried about what separation would mean for them, Sugar told Shadow and Act’s News Editor Monique Jones that she felt that the elimination was a good test for them to realize they are just as strong individually.

“It has helped so much because, you know, drag is a thing that bonds me and Spice together, but at the same time it can be a crutch, because we are very much our own people. We live our own lives. And you know, we’ve been able to manifest this being our job and our life, which is just so powerful,” she said. “But it’s like, we are stronger than we realize, we can stand alone. It might be scary, especially in the drag sense’; all we know is doing this together, but I think ultimately it will benefit us so much and I’m so excited to cheer Spice on and see [that] she can do it without her Sugar to her side. So I’m excited.”

Sugar said that being on the show has fulfilled a childhood dream.

“It was me doing drag just to connect to my childhood self and, you know, kind of be that doll that I was always not allowed to play with, or at least society made it feel that way. I felt like I was living like the Life Size movie [starring] Tyra Banks,” she said. “Like, I felt like I was a doll that was stuck in my childhood bedroom making TikTok and videos and, you know, going into Drag Race, I stepped out of the box. You know, now it was the real world. So it was a really exciting experience.”

Sugar said that the first day on set was like being on “cloud nine,” adding, “I felt like I was like rolling on like ecstasy. Like, I was just living my best life. I’m like, ‘Oh my God, this is like a dream come true.’ I get to do all the things I love and [meet] Ariana [Grande] on the talent show.”

She also added how she didn’t realize how much the other queens weren’t feeling she and her sister’s arrival at first. Of course, we’ve since seen the queens rally around them and embrace them as fellow sisters.

“You know, looking back you don’t even realize how much all the shade the queens were throwing at us and how… just us existing got [them] mad,” she said. “But I think that’s a cool thing about when you’re spiritually aligned and you’re focused on the best feeling thought, you don’t let that get to you. So I think the best takeaway is me just being proud of myself for just being classy about the whole thing, because it would’ve been easy for me to go back at them and get defensive and I’m happy I just saw for what it was and just we’re all living this human experience. So [I] give others grace and myself grace as well.”

The other queens especially rallied around the twins during their final Untucked together, during which Sugar and Spice tearfully talked about their parents’ reaction to them doing drag. The twins also revealed that their parents didn’t even know they were on the show at the time. Now, however, Sugar said that she and her parents are doing much better. She also believes the episode will bring them closer together as a family, adding, “I’m looking forward to that.”

“We definitely are in a better place. And, you know, I think when you reach success, people definitely come around, which, you know, it’s been great and they have been supportive since coming back and finding out that we’ve been on the show,” she said. “So I couldn’t be happier about that. And I think we just all need to allow people to grow and change. Being parents, being a sibling, a daughter, a son, you know, there isn’t a pamphlet, and I think we’re all brought into each other’s lives to hopefully inspire each other to be better people, especially when it comes to immediate family. So I’m happy that we’re all like, moving forward in a positive way.”

Sugar and Spice’s claim to fame before Drag Race was TikTok. Together, the twins have created a fanbase of 7.7 million followers. Along with their YouTube and Instagram accounts, the two have created a mystique around themselves that rivals Drag Race alums. Sugar said that the decision to carve out a niche on TikTok wasn’t one that was made lightly.

“We definitely went down the road less traveled. I mean, it was scary because no one had ever really been a TikTok queen or someone didn’t have a name for themselves unless they had been on the show in recent years,” she said. “So it was definitely scary because we were out at college, we had a pair of student loans, we wanted to do drag, but we weren’t in the city to go and do the gigs and get the money and the tips.”

“[Our TikTok account] was before TikTok was even a big, huge app, but we trusted our instincts and our guts and we’re like, there’s something here. And I’m all about leaning in,” she continued. “So we leaned in and, um, that’s my advice to anyone, to lean in and you will reap the benefits tenfold, especially in the beginning. It’s scary. But if you pave and carve your own path, then you’ll be much happier in the long run.”

RuPaul’s Drag Race airs Fridays at 8/7c on MTV.

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