Allison Holker’s daughter has explained why her mom made friends and family sign an NDA at Stephen “tWitch” Boss’s funeral.
The beloved TV star, best known for his appearances as the DJ on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, tragically passed away at the age of 40.
Boss’ body was found at a motel in Los Angeles on December 13, 2022.
His cause of death was ruled as suicide by a coroner, and county officials further confirmed that the late dancer died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, TMZ reported.
The longtime DJ was married to Alison Holker. The couple shared a son Maddox, eight, and daughter Zaia, five. Boss was also stepfather to Holker’s daughter from a previous relationship, 16-year-old Weslie Fowler.
In a recent PEOPLE interview, Holker revealed that she learned about her late husband Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss’ drug addiction weeks after his death.
The 36-year-old, who is also a professional dancer, said that she had discovered a “cornucopia” of drugs such as mushrooms, pills, and “other substances [she] had to look up on my phone,” hidden inside Boss’ shoeboxes inside their closet.
“It was a really triggering moment for me because there were a lot of things I discovered in our closet that I did not know existed,” Holker told the outlet.
After the interview was published, the mom – who is releasing her memoir, This Far: My Story of Love, Loss, and Embracing the Light – was slammed for speaking about her late husband’s struggles.
The dancer’s 16-year-old daughter responded to the backlash directed at her mom on Instagram, saying: “I just feel think things need to be addressed and I would rather it come from me to defend my family than anybody else because I feel like it’s important,” per E! News.
“I’m so sick of getting hate comments and seeing my mom get hate for literally losing the person that she loves and I have siblings. This is their dad. This is who they’re gonna grow up and they’re gonna see all this on social media that’s so hurtful,” she added.
In the live video, the teen defended her mother against online criticism regarding her public discussions, saying: “My mom gets called a murderer. They say that she is money-hungry. They say that she needs more fame. That’s not how my mom is.”
“My mom never said that Stephen was an addict. He would be open and vulnerable about smoking weed,” she continued. “Also my mom isn’t calling him a terrible person for smoking weed.”
“But when you have two years after somebody committed suicide to sit here and question every interaction you had, every single thing they did, obviously my mom’s like, maybe I should have paid more attention to him smoking a lot of weed,” she added.
Weslie also addressed a recent claim that Holker made Boss’ friends and family sign an NDA ahead of his January 2023 funeral.
‘We had a funeral, and then we had a week, and my mom asked for NDAs to be signed when we were seeing Stephen’s body because God forbid somebody that went to that took a photo of Stephen and put it on the internet or shared it with somebody else,” she revealed.
“That’s the type of thing that NDAs are for. It’s not so you can never talk about Stephen.”
The teenager expressed her support for her mother’s decision and acknowledged that Holker was understanding if someone declined to sign the NDA.
She then said the current discussion around the NDAs is “annoying” because “that whole day was supposed to be beautiful. And instead it was less than that. We were going to say our goodbyes and instead people were yelling at each other and bashing my mom,” per PEOPLE.
Weslie concluded her video by expressing her love for her stepfather, whom she says is “irreplaceable,” and urging viewers to respect her family’s privacy, especially considering she has younger siblings.
She also emphasized that Holker’s memoir isn’t about “bashing” her late husband. “it’s literally my mom telling her story, and her story is also still going to continue,” she added.
