RuPaul's Drag Race Contestant Sahara Davenport Gone At 27

Antoine Ashley was a loving boyfriend, a supporter of GLBT youth organizations and an incredibly fierce drag queen. As Sahara Davenport, he won over fans during his season on RuPaul’s Drag Race and later won over season three runner-up Karl Westerberg/ Manila Luzon. They two would have accomplished great things together, but sadly, tragedy derailed those plans.

Ashley passed away earlier this week at the tender age of twenty-seven. Details about what exactly happened are still few and far between at this point, but Logo, the cable channel that airs Drag Race, released a statement offering sympathy to all those affected by the tragedy. You can take a look at the network’s comments below, as per People

”Logo is profoundly saddened by the passing of Antoine Ashley who fans around the world knew and loved as Sahara Davenport. He was an amazing artist and entertainer who'll be deeply missed by his Logo family. Our hearts and prayers go out to his family, especially his boyfriend Karl, in their time of need."

Even without details, fans, friends and admirers have been hitting up Twitter to pay their respects to Ashley. RuPaul expressed shock over what happened. JuJu Boston said an angel has been added to heaven, and most touchingly of all, Ashley’s boyfriend said the following…

”I love him so much.”

Regardless of what happened to Antoine, he will be missed by a hell of a lot of people. His courage to be who he wanted to be was inspiring, and his talent was unquestioned. Pop Blend’s sincerest thoughts go out to his loved ones during this depressing week.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.