RuPaul's Drag Race star Jiggly Caliente dies at 44
They had announced on Thursday that the drag performer, who took part in the original US competition during season four, had part of her leg amputated due to a 'severe infection'.
Caliente, real name Bianca Castro, has also appeared in hit LGBT+ drama Pose, and was set to judge the latest season of spin-off programme, Drag Race Philippines.
A Sunday statement from her family on Instagram said: 'It is with profound sorrow that we announce the passing of Bianca Castro-Arabejo, known to the world and cherished by many as Jiggly Caliente. Bianca passed away peacefully on April 27, 2025, at 4:42 am, surrounded by her loving family and close friends.
'A luminous presence in the worlds of entertainment and advocacy, Jiggly Caliente was celebrated for her infectious energy, fierce wit, and unwavering authenticity.
'She touched countless lives through her artistry, activism, and the genuine connection she fostered with fans around the world.
'Her legacy is one of love, courage, and light.
'Though her physical presence is gone, the joy she shared and the space she helped create for so many will remain forever.
'She will be deeply missed, always loved, and eternally remembered.'
The statement also said she was born on November 29 1980.
Underneath the post, fellow drag stars from the reality show franchise Courtney Act, Laganja Estranja, and Cheryl The Queen paid tribute.
Estranja wrote: 'So heartbreaking, such a kind, caring soul!! She will be greatly missed.'
Cheryl wrote: 'We will love you forever and always Jiggly.'
Caliente appeared in Ryan Murphy's LGBT+ drama Pose as Veronica Ferocity, who competes in drag balls as a member of the House Ferocity, and US comedies Broad City and Saturday Night Live.
Following coming out as transgender, she was also in RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars season six and was later appointed a judge when Drag Race Philippines began airing in 2022.
She moved from the Philippines to New York when she was a child.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Irish Sun
7 hours ago
- The Irish Sun
‘It really bums me out' admits Miley Cyrus as she opens up on feud with late Irish star and ‘heartache' regret
MILEY Cyrus has said he feud with the late Sinead O'Connor really "bums" her out. The Hollywood superstar and the late Dublin rocker were involved in an infamous spat 12 years ago after Advertisement 3 Sinead O'Connor and Miley Cyrus had a spat in 2013 Credit: Getty Images - Getty 3 Miley Cyrus has shared her regret for reacting the way she did to Sinead's letter Credit: Getty Images - Getty 3 Miley performed Sinead's hit song on SNL this year Credit: Getty Images - Getty The letter stated, 'We don't encourage our daughters to walk around naked in it because it makes them prey for animals' and accused the youngster of being exploited by the industry. Miley, who was 20 at the time, retaliated by posting Sinead's tweets about trying to find a mental health treatment facility while she was struggling with psychiatric issues. The Flowers singer has now reflected on how she handled the criticism and regrets her reaction. Advertisement READ MORE ON MILEY CYRUS Speaking to the New York Times, she said: "I responded in a way that I would never [have] as an adult - but that was also an adult talking to a young person. "That feels like her experience [was] being reflected onto me, but that's not my experience. My experience was not that the music industry didn't care about me." In Sinead's letter, she wrote: 'The music business doesn't give a s*** about you, or any of us. They will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think it's what you wanted..." When asked if these words resonate with Miley now, the Advertisement read more on the irish sun The 32-year-old explained how she's "never known anything else" and was given a handbook from her dad She added: "I understand the business that I'm in. I'm in the music industry, I'm in the record business, so when I sign a contract, they are buying records that they wish to sell. Miley Cyrus reveals hospital dash after filming for her music video caused shock illness "So I understand that I am setting myself up to become merchandise. I am committed to them that I want to not only bring success for myself, but to them also, so I just understand the music industry. "And at one point in my life I look forward to just being an artist – untied and untethered – at some point I will get to do that." Advertisement Miley and Brittany Howard paid tribute to Sinead by singing a cover of Nothing Compares 2 U during Saturday Night Live's 50th season anniversary show in February 2025. 'PAYING MY RESPECTS' The We Can't Stop star revealed that SNL producer Lorne Michaels' had requested them to do the performance after the creative director She added: "That initially didn't come from me but I thought it was a great idea because I think we all had – again, talking about those band aids on heartaches and wounds – this interaction that I had with Sinead bums me out because I really respect her as a person, as an artist, and so it was my way of paying my respects." In August 2023, a month after Sinead's death, the Party In The USA star was shown walking up to a microphone stand as a message read, 'Dedicated to Sinéad O'Connor' before she performed the song 'Wonder Woman; from her new album. Advertisement During the TV appearance, Miley admitted: 'I had no idea about the fragile mental state that she was in. "I was also only 20 years old so I could really only wrap my head around mental illness only so much."
The Irish Sun
2 days ago
- The Irish Sun
Woman behind viral American Airlines meltdown launches ‘unfiltered' exclusive content site 2 years after shock incident
THE so-called "crazy plane lady" who was recorded having a mid-air meltdown where she called a fellow passenger "not real" has launched an exclusive content account. Tiffany Gomas announced the "unfiltered" account with a collection of sexy bikini pictures two years after rocketing to infamy over her flight outburst. 5 Infamous American Airlines passenger Tiffany Gomas has launched an exclusive subscription-based account Credit: Instagram/tiffanygomas 5 She earned the nickname 'crazy plane lady' over her explicit mid-air rant Credit: Twitter 5 Gomas said that subscribers can DM her if they pay a monthly fee Credit: Instagram/tiffanygomas On Tuesday, the flyer told her 150,000 Instagram followers that she launched an account on the website Passes. Much like OnlyFans, Passes allows for creators to post exclusive content that's only accessed behind a paywall. However, this site is different as users can only post safe-for-work content. But despite this, Gomas made the announcement alongside a series of raunchy pictures that showed off her tan body and defined abs. In her Passes description, Gomas told followers that they would get an inside look at the "chaos" of her workouts, sports, shoes, and outfits. "Thanks for flying with me," she wrote, poking fun at her viral video. "Make sure to say hi in my DMs, that's where all the magic happens." Gomas earned the nickname "crazy plane lady" after she was filmed wildly shouting in the middle of a flight in July 2023. Most read in The US Sun "But I am telling you, right now, that motherf**ker back there is not real," she was caught saying. The clip sparked an online wildfire, with Saturday Night Live even making an entire sketch based on the incident. Eventually, when Gomas was identified as the woman in the video, some brazen onlookers tried to connect with her. UFC star Conor McGregor slid into her DMs, but Gomas insisted that he wasn't trying "to get in my pants or anything," she previously said on the "He wanted to know what I saw," Gomas revealed to the hosts in November 2023. 5 Gomas said she didn't leave the house for four weeks after the video went viral Credit: Instagram @tiffanygomas 5 She made the announcement alongside some racy snaps Credit: Instagram/tiffanygomas 'I WAS A BRAT' Gomas admitted that she was filled with regret after seeing herself go viral for the explicit rant. "I was a brat," she told She said that she tries not to think about the outburst and wants to "block it out completely." At the time the video was taken, Gomas was a marketing executive who lived in Dallas, Texas. But she said her life was quickly put on pause when she got the unwanted press. "I stayed home for over four weeks because I was so ashamed and so embarrassed I didn't wanna go in public," she said. "It was not my best moment [...] It was actually a horrible moment. "Absolutely mortifying. How horribly mortifying." Passes subscribers will have to pay $9.99 a month if they want to send five DMs to Gomas and get access to her account. Read more on the Irish Sun For $20 a month, subscribers can talk for free all day long. And mega fans who want to shell out $70 per month will get two exclusive messages each month, access to Gomas' live streams, and discounted pay-per-view content.
Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Irish Examiner
Podcast Corner: WTF with Marc Maron is coming to an end — here's why
WTF came out every Monday and Thursday and there has never been a break in the schedule. That's a lot of time — at least two hours a week — to spend with somebody. Maron offered us himself. He was a recovering alcoholic and drug user whose career had careened to a halt; his podcast intro includes what was one of his few mainstream moments, when he cries out 'lock the gates' during Almost Famous (he's listed as 'Angry Producer' in the credits). It was a simple idea: In-depth interviews with friends and famous people. And it's been copied by many wannabe podcasters since. Maron got in deep and episodes can often feel like therapy sessions. One of the long-running bits of WTF was Maron pondering what his life might have been like if he had been accepted onto Saturday Night Live. He talked to SNL alumni about the process and mulled over what showrunner Lorne Michaels had made of him. He finally talked with Michaels 10 years ago (episode 653) and perhaps it was a catharsis for him. Since then, Maron has gone from strength to strength professionally: He's done voice work for The Simpsons and the 2022 animated film The Bad Guys, starred in Oscar-nominated films like To Leslie, and beloved TV shows such as Netflix's Glow, cancelled before its time. Just this week he stars in Stick on Apple TV+ alongside Owen Wilson, which is garnering great reviews. That's not to mention all the huge names that have appeared on the podcast, which he records in his garage: Then US president Barack Obama, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio to name just a couple. In his eight-minute intro talking through the decision on Monday, Maron says: 'It's OK for things to end. It's just time, folks.' Read Marc Maron's full introduction explaining why WTF is coming to an end WTF, this podcast, will turn 16 years old on September 1. That's a couple months away. Sixteen years, it's a long time, a long time, and it's a long time to do anything. I've said recently that when I'm living it, I don't feel like time is passing by quickly, but, yeah, all of a sudden, you're old, and you realise you've been doing something a long time. And this started, the old garage, just no one knew what a podcast was. I was coming out of a horrendous divorce. I was wanting to figure out how to continue living my life. Things were not looking good for me. Brendan McDonald, my producer, who I'd worked with for years on other things, radio and streaming related. And when Brendon and I started this thing, all we knew is we were going to do it every Monday and Thursday, and there was no way to make money. There was no way that we knew how to build an audience or anything. It was crazy. We were doing it in a garage at the beginning that was just a garage. It was filled with junk, and it slowly evolved into the show that became what you listen to twice a week. Sixteen years we've been doing this, and we've decided that we had a great run, and now, basically it's time, folks, it's time. WTF is coming to an end, and it's our decision. We'll have our final episode sometime in the fall. It was not some kind of difficult decision, necessarily. Neither me nor Brendan, who are the only people in charge of this operation on every level - I record here in my garage studio, Brendan produces it in his chair in Brooklyn - and it's always been a two man operation. And we always said, Well, how do we know when we're done? And I always said, Well, whenever Brendan says so. And he always said, Well, if Marc is finished then we're finished. And thankfully, we both realised together that we were done, and there was no convincing or pushback or arguing. We were done and it's OK for things to end. Sixteen years! We have been through a lot, and I'm talking about me and you, the audience, me and Brendan, me and my life, me and my cats, me with my guests, me with my equipment, me with moving. Things change, but you've been through the entire arc of my life and everything that's happened in it for the last 16 years. And a lot of it was not easy. A lot of it was amazing. A lot of monumental things really happened on this show. And this was a show that was started when there were no podcasts, and now there are nothing but podcasts. It's been an incredible time in my life and Brendan's life, we've done things that we never thought we would be able to do because of the podcast. My life changed dramatically. All the things that I set out to do before I did the podcast as sort of a Hail Mary pass, to be a standup with an audience, to try my hand at acting to have experiences with other people that were one of a kind and completely exciting and unique and engaging and revealing — to talk to a president in my garage. So many things happened because of just this, setting up a mic in my garage with Brendan on the knobs, producing it, discussing with him how we do it all. It was a real creative partnership, and you, the audience, have been here through all of it, and I shared everything I could with you, because that's the way I do it, and with my guests. And there have been so many amazing guests. And it really comes down to the fact that we have put up a new show every Monday and Thursday for almost 16 years, and we're tired, we're burnt out, and we are utterly satisfied with the work we've done. We've done great work. And this doesn't mean I'm never going to do something like this again. Doesn't mean I'll never have talks like I do here or some kind of podcast at some point in time. But for now, we're just wrapping things up. It's OK. It's OK to end things. It's OK to try to start some other chapter in your life, and I'm talking to myself. This podcast has been my connection to you people. It's been my connection socially to people in my business, people I never thought I'd meet before, creative people, interesting people. It's a very big part of my spiritual, social, and psychological life. But I'll be honest with you, it's nice to be able to end things on our terms, and we've always had that power to do that, and that's what we're going to do. We started the show on our terms, we grew it on our terms, and we'll end it on our terms. Look, we've had great partners who have helped us do the show over the years. Acast has been our partner for the past three years, and we've been able to do things on our terms with them. We always had that, and it's always been the way we've done it, and that's been great, and we've been very fortunate to be able to do things the way we want to do them. And now this is part of it, ending it the way we want it to end. And look, the thing about burnout, about being tired, and about the way me and Brendan are, is that we are very focused and very particular and very hard working in this endeavor, and the quality of the work we've done every fucking episode is its own greatness, because we're crazy dedicated guys who really want this to be the best show that it can be. I bring what I bring to the table. Brendan brings what he brings to the table. And, you know, God forbid we just keep plowing along and something diminishes, and we wouldn't want to just keep plugging along, because we can, at the risk of our burnout, or our passion starts to drift or it starts to get sloppy. We're just not those kind of people. And look, I've got a lot of stuff going on. I've got a lot of projects going on. And we're still going to be doing this for the next several months, and we'll try to have as many people on as possible, many people that maybe want to do it, never did do it, or people that maybe will do it now on this sort of home stretch, but I do want to sincerely thank all you people for being along on this journey with me and with Brendan and with all the guests, because we really did something here. And I want to thank you all for that. This isn't a sign off, but that's the big news, and I'm sure we'll talk about it more in the weeks to come. I'm sure that you guys will want to chime in, but just for now, thank you for being here as always. There's probably going to be some ups and downs over the next few months with me emotionally around the reality of this, but... this is a full-hearted decision. It's the right decision for me, it's the right decision for Brendan. It's OK. It's OK for things to end. It's just time, folks. But again, we'll have a few more months, so don't get all bummed out. Let's just enjoy it. The world is on fire. I have people I want to talk to. We'll find a little joy, we'll find a little connection. We'll find a little solace in each other's company. We'll learn some things. We'll get some laughs. We'll cry a little bit and we'll move on.
