Stephen “tWitch” Boss shocked the world with his untimely death in December 2022. The dancer, DJ, and co-executive producer of The Ellen DeGeneres Show died by suicide at age 40, leaving his wife, Allison Holker, and three children behind. Holker recently caused a stir online when she released her memoir, which exposes Stephen’s alleged drug abuse. Holker’s memoir also shares intimate details of the DJ’s journal, which claims he was abused as a child.
The late dancer’s family recently spoke out about the string of allegations via an interview with CBS Mornings.”I guess my thought is, first of all, that was his story to tell,” Stephen’s mother, Connie Boss Alexander, said to CBS.
Holker said she found marijuana and a “cornucopia” of other drugs in their home after Boss’ passing. Seeing this information circulating online surprised Stepphen’s family.
“I knew that recreationally he’s used or tried things. That wasn’t a shock to me,” Boss’ younger brother, Dre Rose, said. “This cornucopia of drugs that had to be Googled … We don’t know anything to be true … It’s someone else’s version, and if that is the truth, there could have been a better way to bring that to the family.”
There were mixed reactions to Holker sharing the intimate details of Stephen’s life in her book. However, many social media users felt it was a money grab and unfair, considering that he was no longer here to tell his side.
Rose also added that he didn’t know about Boss’ tentative childhood sexual abuse and that it was shocking to him and his father.
“So now you have our family looking at each other, like, well, what happened?” he said. “We didn’t know anything of that nature.”
That said, Rose, who worked with Boss, admits that considering Holker and tWitch were married, she may have access to information they didn’t.
“I think there are things that she knows that we didn’t know, but also know that there are things about him that she didn’t know,” he said.
Rose added that Boss often opened up about his struggles with impostor syndrome, and they’d collaborate on ways to minimize his insecurities. Boss also confided in Rose and told him having those conversations with Holker was difficult.
“So in my opinion, our conversation that he had with me, he felt silenced, like he couldn’t get it out,” Rose said regarding how he thinks Boss felt with Holker.
Although tWitch’s family has done this CBS exclusive, it isn’t the first time they’ve shared disapproval of how Holker is choosing to share Stephen’s story. They were especially displeased with her choice to share the late DJ’s journal entries in her book and with PEOPLE magazine.
“If that is what you want to convey or share to the public, bringing up someone’s journal entries, that’s not how you expose it. There could have been, “‘Hey, this is my experience, and I wanna let people know what to look for,”” Rose said. “But to use my brother’s name and make it seem like he had this serious addiction problem and this sexual abuse allegation, that could have been true, that could have been true, but that isn’t — I don’t think that’s the reason why my brother isn’t here today.”