Ellen DeGeneres is honoring her present’s DJ, the late Stephen “tWitch” Boss, on his birthday.
“Pleased birthday tWitch,” DeGeneres, 66, wrote by way of Instagram on Sunday, September 29. “I miss you each day.”
Alongside the candy message, DeGeneres shared a pic of her and Boss embracing on the stage of her daytime discuss present The Ellen DeGeneres Present. The second occurred when DeGeneres gave Boss a sendoff because the present got here to an finish in 2022.
After rising to stardom on So You Suppose You Can Dance season 4, Boss grew to become DeGeneres’ discuss present DJ in 2014. Six years later, he grew to become an govt producer on the collection.
In December 2022, Boss was discovered lifeless at a Los Angeles resort. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner later confirmed that Boss died by suicide. He was 40 years previous on the time.
Days after his loss of life, DeGeneres shared a photograph of herself hugging Boss. “I’m heartbroken. tWitch was pure love and lightweight,” she wrote by way of Instagram. “He was my household, and I beloved him with all my coronary heart. I’ll miss him.”
Within the wake of his loss of life, DeGeneres went on to share a number of tributes to Boss, together with a montage of moments from the present.
“The previous 11 days have been actually powerful for everybody. Everyone seems to be in ache and making an attempt to make sense of it,” she mentioned on the time. “We [may] by no means make sense of it. And the vacations are onerous, I feel, anyway. However to honor tWitch, I feel the perfect factor that we are able to do is to chortle and hug one another, play video games and dance and sing. That’s the way in which we honor him.”
She continued: “I do know it appears onerous — it appears unattainable. However that’s how we honor him. And hug one another and inform one another we love one another. … Pleased holidays, all people. I do know it’s not a cheerful vacation. However he was pure gentle … Should you didn’t know him, you noticed it. Let’s honor him and take into consideration him and ship love to at least one one other.”
Two years later, Boss’ spouse, Allison Holker, praised DeGeneres for being a “enormous help system” to her. “She would all the time simply have such sensible phrases for me, and I might say that exterior of me and our dearest associates, she knew him higher than anybody else too,” Holker mentioned throughout a January episode of the “Viall Information” podcast.
Holker shared daughter Weslie, 16, son Maddox, 8, and daughter Zaia, 4, with Boss, whom she wed in 2013. (Weslie is Holker’s daughter from a earlier relationship, whom Boss had adopted.)
“[Ellen] knew him [and] she spent plenty of time with him,” Holker mentioned. “So, we’ve had these actually stunning conversations about it and him and share in laughter and grief. However, she’d all the time come by with some actually stable, sound recommendation for me, for my future, getting by every part and for my youngsters. She’s been so pretty.”
Should you or somebody you understand is in emotional misery or contemplating suicide, name the 988 Suicide & Disaster Lifeline at 988.