A new report on RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sharon Needles’ former relationship with a 15-year-old fan has given weight to a number of horrendous allegations raised against her.
Back in 2013, a then 15-year-old teen who goes by the name Annecy connected with Sharon, their idol, online. Over that year, they began to bond on Vine. Annecy then later won tickets to an eight-day long cruise called Drag Stars At Sea where Sharon and a number of other Drag Race stars were set to appear.
Back in mid-2020, Annecy claimed that the Drag Race star physically abused them – including allegedly “sit[ting] on [their] neck and chok[ing them]” – and encouraged them to self-harm. Sharon also allegedly coerced the teen into taking illegal substances like marijuana and alcohol through mouth-to-mouth transmission – including allegedly blowing “shotguns of weed” into Annency’s mouth and kissing them after drinking beer – while on the cruise.
One of Annency’s parents accompanied them on the eight-day event but reportedly was not present most of the time and did not witness this allegedly transpire.
Back then, there wasn’t enough evidence to support Annency’s claims. However, The Daily Beast has just published a scathing investigative piece into the situation which corroborates Annency’s claims through evidence of messages sent between them and Sharon, as well as the accounts of people Annecy spoke to at the time, and witnesses on the cruise.
What they’ve found is pretty shocking.
In a video Sharon reportedly sent to Annecy that’s shared in the Daily Beast yarn, the Drag Race winner is in a lift with ex-partner and fellow Drag Race alum Alaska Thunderfuck. In that clip, Sharon laughs into the camera and disturbingly says to the camera: “Annecy, keep eating more pills, they’re not working. You have to eat more of them.”
Lizzie Renaud, another person who attended the cruise, told the outlet that “everyone was talking about” Annency’s and Sharon’s relationship during the cruise. They also alleged that Sharon brought the teen into “adult” scenarios where they were exposed to drugs and alcohol, which substantiates Annency’s claim that they were fed “shotguns of weed” and beer.
“Nobody felt good when Annecy was around and we were all partaking in adult, consenting things together,” she said.
“Sharon brought them into that, and Sharon should have known better.
“When I say that Sharon was intoxicated on the boat, that is kind of an understatement. And I will say that a lot of us were like that on the trip, but none of us were also all over a 15-year-old kid, and taking responsibility for them.”
The outlet also says they examined an Instagram post from May 2014 where Annecy referenced an incident where the drag queen “stared growling something involving ‘I’m Sharon mother fucking needles’ and mounted me with her legs around my neck, with her crotch digging into me to the point I was choking”.
Additionally, in multiple messages and social media posts at the time reviewed by the outlet, Annency reportedly shared instances where Sharon and Alaska “expos[ed] themselves” to them. In one comment from 2016, Annecy claims: “Alaska must have been loopy bc she just pulled her shorts down and was like oops you’re 15 I’m sorry.” In a Facebook post about a picture with Alaska from December 2013, Annency wrote: “Me bout 30 minutes after seeing Alask[‘]s penis”.
The comments of a post featuring Annency and Sharon made by another user from September 2015 appear to support this. For context, the post misgendered Annency as someone who uses she/her pronouns, and the comment reportedly reads: “Alaska showed her his dick. Less of an accident”.
It’s worth mentioning here that the publication doesn’t link out to these posts in the yarn so we were unable to fact-check this ourselves.
When the outlet reached out to the person behind that post, they promptly removed it. When they reached out to Alaska, she did not comment.
“As soon as it happened, I went into this weird dissociated state,” Annency recalled to the outlet.
“I just remembered feeling like I was walking in slow motion, staring up at myself in these mirrors, and it was just like a really weird experience.
“And then I just accepted it like it was funny and I would just joke about it with all my friends. Everything weird that happened I would just turn into a joke and just laugh about it.”
When The Daily Beast reached out to Sharon’s lawyers for comment, representatives reportedly said the Drag Race series reality TV star would be defending themselves in court if need be and denied all of the allegations raised in the article. They also reportedly refused to respond to the “multiple” follow-ups the outlet sent them.
The outlet also reached out to representatives for Michelle Visage after Annency claimed the judge learned of their relationship at the time. Visage allegedly complained to the production company of RuPaul’s Drag Race, World of Wonder, on the cruise. However, the Daily Beast didn’t receive a reply. The Daily Beast tried to contact several former Drag Race contestants as well but they did not comment.
You can read the full story here. Fair warning though, it’s intense and comes with a lot of references to suicide ideation, graphic references of self-harm, physical abuse, sexual abuse, grooming and emotional manipulation.
Back in 2020, World of Wonder disqualified and edited out season 12 contestant Sherry Pie from the show after they admitted to soliciting nudes and sexually exploiting impressionable young actors under the guise of an audition for a project they made up. Unfortunately, because cancel culture isn’t real, that didn’t stop the disgraced drag star from appearing on a talk show less than a full year later.
