This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.
Ellen DeGeneres is honoring Stephen “tWitch” Boss, her DJ on her daytime show, on the one-year anniversary of his death.
“I thought that I would share a couple of memories that I have,” she says at the top of an Instagram reel she posted Dec. 13.
She then opens up about how she fondly recalls how they ended every episode of her show.
“We would sing and dance to some song. And then we would make each other laugh somehow,” she says.
“And then we would walk off arm in arm and walk to my dressing room, which was the first one we got to and I would say, ‘I love you,’ and he’d say, ‘Love you much.’ And then he would walk off to his. And every single day, that’s how we ended the show, in arm in arm. I miss that.”
Boss died by suicide Dec. 13, 2022, at the age of 40.
DeGeneres also talks about one of their last trips together with the show, when they went to Las Vegas and saw the musical duo Silk Sonic.
“That was really fun. Singing to each other and just being in Vegas together was really fun,” she says.
DeGeneres also recalls the time she, Boss and her executive producer on her show, Andy Lassner, went to the Miraval resort in Arizona and Boss climbed a pole high in the air, with footage of the moment interspersed with her as she speaks.
“He was so scared to do that,” she says. “And when he got on that pole, that high up, and stood, and then Andy had to join him? That was one of the most fun shoots that we’ve ever done and one of the last trips that we took.”
DeGeneres says his legacy endures to this day and she is sad she didn’t know the internal struggles he had.
“His memory lives on. I love him so much. I miss him so much,” she says.
“And it’s a reminder every single day that you just don’t know what people are going through, because he was a happy guy, I thought, and I was really close to him. And he never shared that with me.
“So, that is sad, that he didn’t feel like he could find a way out and share that he was struggling. Because we all would have done anything we could to help him. I miss him every single day. But I have amazing memories of him.”
Following his death, DeGeneres honored Boss with a montage of memories and tried to come to grips with what happened.
“Everyone is in pain and trying to make sense of it,” she said in an Instagram video 10 days after he died. “We’ll never make sense of it. And the holidays are hard, I think, anyway. But to honor tWitch, I think the best thing that we can do is to laugh and hug each other and play games and dance and sing.”
Boss’ wife, Allison Holker Boss, also mourned her husband as the one-year anniversary of his death approached.
“Grief never ends ... but every season of challenge has an expiration date. Keep believing and keep dancing through,” she wrote Dec. 2 on Instagram.