Todrick Hall has claimed that his friend Stephen ‘Twitch’ Boss was under a lot of “pressure” after his former boss Ellen Degeneres was publicly scrutinized following allegations of a toxic workplace at her now-defunct talk show. Over the summer of 2020, it almost seemed impossible to get away from stories by former colleagues who came forward and denounced Degeneres’ alleged behavior towards them.
Boss, who died by suicide back in December, was one of the few people who stood up for the 65-year-old and came to her defense, leaving many startled considering the severity of the allegations made against Degeneres at the time. In his interview with Page Six, Hall explained, “People were looking at him like, ‘Why are you still supporting this woman.’ And I think he was under a lot of pressure.”
#StephenBoss #twitchboss #stephentwitchboss #RestInPeace Finally has been laid to rest ❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/TFhNsNcoMp
— Alissa Marie (@Alissamarie1980) January 5, 2023
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Hall continued by saying that the scrutiny that came with supporting Degeneres during what was arguably one of her most challenging times (outside of coming out as gay in the ‘90s), may have contributed to Boss’ mental state in the lead-up to his sudden demise.
“I don’t know what was going on in his life that may [have led] him to make that decision but I do understand,” he continued. “Right now when I get online some days like right now, if I was in the wrong position of where this abuse would keep happening for years and years and years, there’s only so much a human being can take.”
A week after Boss’ passing, Degeneres took to her social media accounts to share a heartfelt tribute to her former colleague, whom she deemed a good friend of hers since he joined the show back in 2014.
In a message to her millions of followers, she asked that people should “hug each other” and “laugh” as a way to honor the DJ.
Ellen tears up while honoring Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss in new TikTok video:
“hug each other and tell each other we love each other and let people know we’re there for them and check in on people.” pic.twitter.com/dnPwAxjWn9
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) December 23, 2022
“To honor tWitch, I think the best thing that we can do is to laugh and hug each other, play games and dance and sing,” Degeneres said. “That’s the way we honor him. We do the things that he loved to do, which is dancing. He loved music, he loved games.”
“I know it’s not a happy holiday, but he was pure light as everybody in the comments said. If you knew him, you knew that, if you didn’t know him, you saw it. Let’s honor him and think about him, and send love to one another.”