Drag Race Down Under host Michelle Visage reveals truth about her ‘open marriage’

Michelle Visage made headlines revealing the key to her 28-year union was an ‘open marriage.’ Now she tells news.com.au exactly what that entails.

Longtime RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Michelle Visage was the subject of a slew of salacious tabloid stories earlier this month, all purporting to reveal the secret to her 28-year marriage: Sleeping with other people.

“Michelle Visage says having sex with other men makes marriage with husband stronger,” read one particular headline. 

Speaking to Visage a couple of weeks after that minor tabloid frenzy, though, I find that all is not quite as it seems.

Visage, 56, had recently opened up about her marriage on the Origins With Cush Jumbo podcast. In it, she described she and husband David Case as “living openly” and having a relationship of “transparency” – not quite the extramarital bonk-fest you’d believe if you just read those headlines.

“I was speaking honestly, but I was misquoted,” Visage tells news.com.au.

But she’s also keen to stress that she and Case do have a somewhat unusual marriage – one that she acknowledges “isn’t for everyone.”

Michelle Visage and husband David Case have been married 28 years.

“We’re really transparent about everything, and we don’t have those rules that maybe traditional marriages do have. The headlines turned it into me saying sleeping with other men keeps my marriage together. That’s not the case, but I could if I wanted to because my husband and I have a completely transparent, loving and honest relationship … and I am away six months out of the year,” she explains.

“So I am not going on a bender sleeping with randos anytime I want, but if it came up, the potential is there. And sometimes, just knowing that is all we need.”

That relaxed attitude extends to the misreporting of her marriage: Visage says she didn’t feel any urge to clear up the conjecture, even as the headlines got more and more outrageous.

“Listen, who cares? We know our commitment to each other. We know what we mean to each other and our children. Our children know how we live,” she says.

“We’re not swingers throwing our keys into the fishbowl when we go into the party. We just live a beautiful, honest life. You think I’m a slag? Go ahead! I don’t care what you think. We’ve been married for 28 years, and it’s true love.”

Start your engines: Michelle Visage is the new host of Drag Race Down Under.

With that cleared up, we move on to all things Drag Race. After 13 years sitting to Ru’s right on the judging panel, this week Visage steps into a new role: Hosting the fourth season of Drag Race Down Under.

Over the years she’s earned a reputation as a tough-but-fair judge with an exacting eye for detail. Many a queen on the show has retreated to the Untucked lounge, cocktail in hand, to moan about her critiques.

And long may that continue: Visage says she has no intention of playing it safe now that she’s the host.

“When Ru handed it over to me, he said: I don’t want you to try to be me. I want you to be you. I love you for who you are. And that’s how I want you to be. So no, I’m not ‘Switzerland’. The Michelle Visage judge is still within me,” she promises.

Visage joined the Drag Race judging panel back on the third season in 2011. A close friend of RuPaul’s since the late 80s, she would’ve been a part of the show from the start, were it not for one roadblock.

When the fledgling, low budget, gauze-filtered new drag show was starting in 2009, she was a morning radio host who’d just signed a new five-year deal, and her boss wouldn’t give her a couple of weeks off to film the first season.

RuPaul’s Drace Race started in 2009 …

… and Michelle joined the judging panel two seasons later.

She begged, but he held firm, telling her that appearing on a drag TV show “wasn’t really the image of the station.”

“I sat back and went, ‘You’re homophobic.’ Because I wasn’t even asking about talking about it on the air, I was just talking about [taking time off].

“I would have walked away and said I was doing it anyway, but they would have sued me for the whole deal, which was five years of my salary.”

Two years later, the offer came again. This time, Visage tried a different tack: “I went above his head and called the president of the radio company – who had no idea who I was! He said, ‘by all means, yes.’ We made it work.”

From there, the show’s influence and cultural imprint has only grown, with iterations of the franchise now spread around well over a dozen countries across the globe.

Among this season’s Down Under guest judges: G Flip …

… and Sophie Monk. I smell a Bardot lip-synch!

Along the way, dozens upon dozens of celebrity guest judges have flocked to appear on the show, among them pop icons, Oscar winners and leading political figures. Visage says that without exception, all those guests share one thing in common:

“Every single person that has been a guest judge is a super fan. I’ve never seen anything like it: There’s something about this show that makes people’s inner kid come out. They’ll sit down and go, ‘This is the best moment of my entire career!’ People like Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande saying that? It’s insane.”

But one particular guest judge perhaps leaned into the excitement a little too hard.

Comedian Joel McHale appeared on a 2019 episode of the show, and treated the Drag Race runway like his own personal Super Bowl party, whooping and hollering in place of the customary camp, pun-filled quips. Viewers were divided, and sat alongside him on the judging panel, Visage seemed to hate him … or maybe just want to hate-f**k him?

Joel McHale and a murderous Michelle Visage.

“It was kind of both,” she admits.

“I started out hating him, and I couldn’t believe what he was doing: ‘Why are you being this bro type of guy?’ And then I ended up loving him. I realised what he was doing: He was trying to get a rise out of me, and he did, he absolutely did. It’s kind of iconic.”

One celeb who’s never appeared on the judging panel, despite the show featuring approximately 500 lip-synchs to her songs over the years: Kylie Minogue.

Attention, Drag Race and Kylie Minogue fans (the Venn diagram is a circle): Michelle Visage would like you to now that she sees you, she hears you, and she’s working on it.

“I know she wants to do it. I got to meet her last year and she was like, ‘I want to do it. It’s just timing.’ So it will happen. I can guarantee that it will happen!”

Drag Race Down Under season four premieres on Stan this Friday November 1.

Originally published as Drag Race Down Under host Michelle Visage reveals truth about her ‘open marriage’