‘They told me I was crazy’: World-famous drag queen’s shock childhood revelation

World famous drag performer Bianca Del Rio has provided an insight into her childhood.

Bianca Del Rio. Picture: Chris Pavlich / mX.

One of the world’s most famous drag performers has revealed her parents sent her to a psychiatrist. Aged just 10 back then, Bianca Del Rio said it was easier at the time to label someone “crazy” than queer.

“I was called crazy before I was called a f**got or queer,” Del Rio, the stage name of American Roy Haylock, said in the latest episode of the Mental As Anyone podcast.

“It was I guess the easy way to call somebody gay, or question them, was crazy.

“And as a child I went to a psychiatrist and my mother and father thought, ‘okay well, something is not right with this person. I wasn’t lashing out or anything, I was just being my usual flamboyant, hateful self. Now I can look at it and go, ‘oh, yeah, I can imagine’.”

Del Rio, 49 is one of five with three older sisters and a younger brother.

“I mean, they had three normal girls and then I come along and they’re like, ‘well, what is up with this opinionated, artistic, different child?’” Del Rio explained.

“And I’m sure in their minds that they thought we did something wrong as a parent or what is society going to think of this person? I think through it, it gave me more strength because I’m not regretful of any of that. I don’t think the doctor helped me by any means, I didn’t think there was a problem. I just knew, you do what you gotta do. You get through this, you get through high school, then you go live your life.”

Del Rio toured a run of sellout shows in Australia earlier this year.

She is one of the most famous drag queens to come out of the RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise, winning season six in 2014.

Bianca Del Rio

Her trademark perhaps an acerbic wit and ability to ‘read’, a comedic style of pointing out someone’s perceived flaw.

Don’t however mistake Del Rio’s bravado as an oversupply of confidence.

“I don’t know (if) it is confidence,” she said.

Bianca Del Rio in Sydney in January 2025. Picture Thomas Lisson

“I just don’t have the patience for stupidity. I don’t have the answers for everything but I’m not looking for the answers for everything because right now I’ve got to deal with what’s in front of me, which is right now technically eyelashes and back hair.”

She added: “Adoration, I don’t like. I like adoration from a distance. I like being on stage and having the audience. I don’t like being thrown into a mess of it. I don’t like being at a party where everyone’s focused on me. For instance, if I’m at a restaurant and they tell the waiter it’s my birthday, I’d rather die, because it’s the most unwarranted, awkward attention, there’s no way out of that. That kind of stuff makes me crazy. But, as a show pony, if I’m on stage doing my thing and you’re there, then that’s great.”

* A new episode of Mental As Anyone is released each Tuesday morning.