The December death of fan-favorite entertainer Stephen “tWitch” Boss shocked those close to him and made others realize their own struggles, his wife said in her first interview since the tragedy.
Boss, a DJ and producer on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” died by suicide at age 40, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner.
“No one had any inkling that he was low. He didn’t want people to know,” Allison Holker Boss told People in an interview published Tuesday. “He just wanted to be everyone’s Superman and protector.”
Holker Boss, 35, met Boss on “So You Think You Can Dance” and had three kids with him. She says she and her children are “coping together,” which “requires trust and being really vulnerable.”
“I’ve had so many people — specifically men — reaching out to me, [saying] how they were so affected because they didn’t realize how much they were holding on to and not expressing,” Holker Boss told the magazine. “I found that to be a lot to hold on to at first, but then I realized I want people to feel safe talking to me and to open up and understand that we have to support each other in these moments.”
Boss joined “Ellen” as a DJ in 2014 and became a producer in 2020. He remained with the show through its final episode last May.
DeGeneres remembered Boss in December as “pure love and light,” while Holker Boss said at a February memorial service that her husband “chose love, grace and kindness.”
Boss also appeared in the stripper comedy “Magic Mike XXL” and three of the dance-focused “Step Up” films.
Following his death, Holker Boss started the Move with Kindness Foundation, a fund-raiser to support mental health initiatives.