Chi Chi DeVayne, a drag queen who competed on two seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, has died, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed. She was 34 years old.
DeVayne, born Zavion Davenport, had been hospitalized in July for high blood pressure and suspected kidney failure, alerting fans to her health condition via social media. She shared videos of herself back in the hospital in August. “Keep me in your prayers,” she said in one post shared to her Instagram account.
DeVayne, a Shreveport, Louisiana, native with a lush Southern accent, was a memorable Drag Race competitor, making her debut on the competition series during season eight in 2016. DeVayne was a gifted dancer and lip-syncher who proved to be a canny competitor, known for crafting gowns out of trash bags. The self-appointed bayou queen eventually finished out the season in fourth place, becoming a fan favorite along the way. “Nobody expected me to actually be or get as far as I did—not even me,” she told the Huffington Post after her elimination. “But I look at it as a game.”
“I want the legacy of Chi Chi DeVayne to be a damn good performer that came from nowhere and took the world by storm,” she continued.
She returned to the franchise in the third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars and made it up to the fourth episode, competing alongside fan favorites like Trixie Mattel and Shangela.
DeVayne was vocal about her health struggles over the last few years. In 2018, she wrote to fans on Instagram that she had been diagnosed with scleroderma, an autoimmune disease. “I have been dealing with this over the past eight or nine months but was afraid to expose it to the public in fear of losing out on jobs and facing criticism from friends and fans,” she said, writing candidly about how difficult it had been to deal with the disease. “It has made me hate my appearance .. and also made me stray away from the public eye but I’m no longer hiding and living in a state of fear.”
In the last few months, she continued updating followers about her hospitalizations, most recently sharing a video of herself in the hospital just days ago after coming down with pneumonia. Her death has been mourned by numerous Drag Race colleagues, like Ongina, Darienne Lake, and Roxxxy Andrews.
“I am heartbroken to learn of the passing of Chi Chi DeVayne,” RuPaul said in a statement. “I am so grateful that we got to experience her kind and beautiful soul. She will be dearly missed, but never forgotten. May her generous and loving spirit shine down on us all.”
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