The Surprising Way 'RuPaul's Drag Race' Affected Dusty Ray Bottoms' Wedding

Although Thursday night's episode of RuPaul's Drag Race had Dusty Ray Bottoms teary-eyed after losing a lip sync battle against Monét X Change, her future is looking up. Drag Race star Dusty Ray Bottoms is engaged to be married to her partner of five years. Plus, she just released her first single titled "Neva Lavd Yah!" and fans are loving it — the official music video has already amassed over 25,000 views.

If you think the name of the single sounds familiar, you thought correctly. In her Season 10 entrance, Dusty paraded into RuPaul's workroom in her 1920s-esque pink poodle skirt, elbow-length black gloves, and stunner black heeled boots proclaiming the same three words: "Neva lavd yah!"

In an interview with Bustle, Dusty shares the meaning behind what has become a famous tagline for her. It started as an inside joke between her and her best friend — they used to prank people, yell it and run away. "Now it’s a thing that I’ve always said to what comes at me, or throws shade at me," she says. "I’m like ‘Yeah, neva lavd yah!’ it’s water off the duck’s back, it doesn’t matter, you never had my love anyway."

Someone who does have Dusty's love, however, is her beloved fiancé. But since being on Drag Race, life has gotten expectedly hectic, so they've put the wedding planning on pause. “We still haven’t picked a day," she says. "We were going to get married last November but I spent all my money on Drag Race, so now we’re playing it by ear." She says she has even toyed with the idea of tying the knot at the courthouse, but her fiancé is determined to plan a "real wedding."

The couple does already have a venue picked out in Long Island, but it's no secret that wedding planning can end up feeling like a full-time job. "I don’t know, we’ll get there when we get there," she says. "We’ve made it five years together, I think we can make it six or seven. I can’t be worrying about wedding invitations right now.”

Why not? Because she's busy blessing audiences with her drag performances and developing her portfolio as an artist, of course. “More music to come," she says. "By the end of all this, five to 10 years down the line, my fiancé and I would love to have some queer venues across the country where we can house, do shows and queer theatre. That would be the dream.”

She hopes to also use her drag to raise awareness for the LGBTQ+ community and ending conversion therapy. On the show, she opened up about her own emotional, personal experience with coming out to her parents when she was younger. “They lost it,” she said on the show. “They took me to church, they got me exorcised because they thought I was possessed by a gay demon.” After being so misunderstood at home, she eventually packed up and moved to New York to pursue her drag career.

“It was hard to talk about," she says of opening up on the show. "I love my family so much and I know that they love me so much, and that’s why there’s such a great divide, [but] my story needed to be told."

As an advocate for queer lives, she supports The Trevor Project and encourages all of her fans to donate to the organization and sign up for their newsletter. "Be sure you’re doing all you can to help the future," she says.

Although her spunky presence and dramatic pointillist makeup looks will be missed at the finish line of Drag Race, it's still only the beginning for Dusty Ray Bottoms — in both her career and love life. She's got it all going on.