SPECIAL THANKS TO IMOGEN REID AND AOIFE KILBANE AT THE BBC

“I loved it. I loved every minute of it,” River Medway (unexpectedly) says of her Drag Race UK elimination. “As soon as it happened I was like, ‘Oh, alright. It is what it is.’ I know for a fact that it’s not a reflection of me as a person, it’s not a reflection of me as a drag queen. It’s not the end of the world and if anything, always leave them wanting more…” River Medway lives for the drama CONFIRMED. 

Although River has taken the controversial moment with a pinch of salt, the same can’t be said for viewers, who have come out in mothertucking droves on social media to support the Hannah Montana buff for her unexpected exit.

This week, the queens of season three embodied various iconic celebrities for the Snatch Game and turnedt it out on the runway in fruit-themed ensembles. River’s impersonation of TOWIE star Amy Childs failed to impress the judges, as well as her look, resulting in her competing in the lip-sync smackdown for the first time with Choriza May.

Remember the RuPaul who refused to hand out a badge on last week’s episode? The same RuPaul who condemned Joe Black for her H&M frock? Well, she made her ruturn as she decided to chop both queens from the competition – a twist that hasn’t been enforced on the British spin-off, until now. 

Following our exit interview with Choriza, which you can read in full here, we spoke with River about the – Alyssa Edwards quote incoming! – “buffoonery, wiggery and straight-up tomfoolery” of the episode, her time on the series and how she plans to conquer the theatre and pop industries.

Before we proceed River, can you please do me the honour of recreating your Thomas Waghorn tribute? 
You have to pay for that now, actually. [Points]

How many times a day do people ask you for that? 
Maybe 100 times a day, something like that?

You must be knackered.
I’m going to have to insure these fingers.

How does it feel being the breakout meme of Drag Race UK season three? 
To be honest, I was expecting it at some point. I wasn’t sure whether it was gonna be that or maybe something else. I was like, ‘I just think I will be.’ Not to blow smoke but yeah, it’s nice though. It feels weird. People have me as their profile picture and shit.

And how does it feel to be the top search on Google for River Medway?
That’s really great. It’s all I care about to be honest.

Right, let’s talk about the episode then…
Oh, do we have to? Can we talk about something else?

We must. What was it like last night, watching all of that drama back?
I loved it. I loved every minute of it. I’m now in a place where I can watch Drag Race as separate to my life. I don’t feel like I’m living it, still. I think when the queens watch it and the season comes out, they’re living it again. But, I really can see it as, ‘This is something we all did. We had so much fun doing it. It was tiring. It was really tough. But, it was so great.’ It’s such a great TV show that I can now look back and think, ‘Do you know what? I’m happy with it.’ I’m excited for the drama. I’m excited for everyone to see it. I’m excited to see all the bits they’ve made shady and what actually made into the episode, what didn’t make it into the episode and stuff like that. I’ve already come to terms with anything that happens as well, because it happened so long ago that now it’s like… Everybody’s so shocked but obviously, it’s already happened to me. Imagine telling somebody something that happened to you six months ago? You’ve already gotten over it. They’re gonna be like, ‘Oh my god’, and you’re like, ‘No it’s fine, it happened ages ago.’ Obviously, everybody’s living it now. That’s weird.