Ellen DeGeneres is still struggling to come to terms with the tragic death of friend and colleague Stephen “tWitch” Boss and wants fans to know they are not alone in their “grief.”
“Hey everyone, just wanted to say the last 11 days have been really hard for everyone,” the former talk show host said in an Instagram video posted Friday.
“Everyone is in pain and trying to make sense of it; we’ll never make sense of it.”
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The 64-year-old comedian continued: “And I think the holidays are hard anyway, but I think the best thing we can do to honor Twitch is to laugh and hug and play and dance and sing. So the we honor … we do the things he loved to do.”
DeGeneres, who acknowledged that it seems “impossible” to put on a happy face right now, encouraged viewers to check in and say “we love each other.”
“I know it’s not a happy holiday, but it was pure light as everyone said in the comments, if you knew it you knew it, if you didn’t know you saw it,” he concluded.
Boss was found dead in a Los Angeles motel room on December 13 at the age of 40. His official cause of death was suicide after a gunshot wound to the head.
Although motel staff said the famous dancer did not appear “visibly upset” when he checked into the establishment the day before his death, law enforcement officials told TMZ he left behind a note of suicide that alluded to past struggles he was still dealing with.
Following the news of the The Ellen DeGeneres Show DJ’s death, which left the entire world shocked, the “heartbroken” comedian took to Instagram to mourn the loss of her longtime friend.
“TWitch was pure love and light,” DeGeneres captioned a photo of the pair embracing. “He was my family and I loved him with all my heart. I will miss him.”
Boss, who began deejaying on DeGeneres’ now-cancelled talk show in 2014, is survived by his wife Allison Holker, with whom he shared three children: Weslie, 14, Maddox, 6, and Zaia, of 3
This article originally appeared in the New York Post and is reproduced here with permission