A 2000s iconic pop star experiencing her darkest nights. A rapper driven to depression
after a fellow superstar criticized him. A beloved actor who spent a year on death row.
Before they ended up on The Masked Singer, these stars endured serious tragedies.
On Season 3 of The Masked Singer, viewers got to meet the Turtle's "Beautiful Soul" when the big
green costume was unmasked as former teen idol Jesse McCartney. The judges actually guessed
his identity correctly, which freaked him out a bit. As he admitted to Entertainment Weekly,
"It took me by surprise, and my initial reaction was, 'Oh s---, they got it' [...] I just kind
of just tried to play it as cool as I could, but definitely inside that mask I was freaking out."
"You crushed it, man."
"Thank you, guys!"
In much sadder news, mere weeks after that episode aired,
McCartney's former Dream Street bandmate Chris Trousdale died from COVID-19 complications.
McCartney shared a tribute on Instagram, as he wrote,
"Chris had an explosively charming personality with boundless amounts
of talent [...] We were young kids with budding talent who shared an overwhelming
love for music and performing. Chris, in my opinion, was the most popular among us,
who had a way of drawing every eye to what he was doing on stage."
Shortly thereafter, the surviving members of Dream Street performed
a socially distanced version of "It Happens Every Time" in memory of their lost friend.
March 11, 2020, was an odd day for many reasons, most of it related to the
looming COVID-19 pandemic. Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announced that they'd tested positive,
then-President Donald Trump addressed the nation, and the NBA suspended its season.
If you ran out to stock up on toilet paper while all that was happening, you may have missed
Sarah Palin's unmasking after she performed the Sir Mix-a-Lot classic "Baby Got Back."
The former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate has made headlines for many political
reasons, and her personal life hasn't escaped scrutiny either. Her family was the subject of
a reality show called Sarah Palin's Alaska, and it seems that all was not well behind the scenes,
as she and her husband, Todd, called it quits in 2020. According to the divorce complaint,
Todd cited, quote, "Incompatibility of temperament between the parties
such that they find it impossible to live together as husband and wife."
Sarah meanwhile, wasn't quite ready to give up, as she told Dr. James Dobson,
"We're going through counseling now, so it's not over, over."
Alas, it would soon be completely over, as the divorce was finalized on March 23, 2020,
a mere twelve days after Sarah's unmasking.
On Queer Eye, Bobby Berk and the rest of the Fab Five turn hapless people into the confident humans
they were always meant to be. It's fitting, then, that he was the Caterpillar on The Masked Singer.
Berk is out and proud nowadays, but it wasn't always so easy for him.
On an episode of Queer Eye that took place in a church community, he opened up about religious
trauma from his youth that still affects him to this day. As he recalled to Attitude Magazine,
"The only time I'd heard about [being] gay was in church,
and that was that those people have horns. They're the devil. They're an abomination."
"I wouldn't step foot in your church today."
"Mm-hmm."
"The other guys went in. I wouldn't."
"Wow. Why?"
"Because I told myself I'd never go back to a church."
When Berk came out and left the church, that also meant leaving home and a period of time sleeping
in his car. The Queer Eye church episode was so stressful for him that he nearly quit the show,
although he ultimately saw the value of going through with it. As he recounted to Attitude,
"The producer called me and said, 'Don't do it for the church, do it for all the little Bobbys
who are still sitting in those churches. Do it for them in the hope that the church won't do to them
what it did to you.' And so I said I’d do it for the kids who are still being taught self-hate."
Legendary singer Patti LaBelle was revealed as the voice behind the Flower on Season 2
of The Masked Singer. It was without question one of the most haunting costumes on a show
filled with haunting costumes. According to LaBelle, she was advised during her time
on the show not to hide her distinctive vocal chops. As she revealed to Entertainment Weekly,
"I was kinda confused. I said, okay,
well the only voice that came out was the one that they thought, which was Patti LaBelle!"
The diva was 75 when she competed on the show,
but she once tearfully admitted to Oprah Winfrey that she didn't think she would live past 45,
due to the loss of several family members to cancer. As she revealed to Self in 2021,
"I lost three sisters and a great friend to cancer before they turned 50. My sisters died
of colon cancer and lung cancer, and my friend died of breast cancer. So, after losing them,
I was petrified that 50 would be my death point."
In addition to her still-thriving career as a singer and sweet potato pie maven,
LaBelle now works as an advocate ensuring that people get early cancer screenings.
On The Masked Singer Season 3, the Elephant turned out to be none other than pro skateboarder Tony
Hawk. Alas, his performance of The Cure's "Friday I'm In Love" failed to impress,
to say the least. As he admitted to Entertainment Weekly after being eliminated,
"I felt like I might have gotten in over my head."
Back in 2003, Hawk had a near death experience while, weirdly enough, wearing another animal
costume. While dressed in a gorilla suit for an episode of MTV's WildBoyz, he fell off a circular
ramp dubbed "The Loop of Death." It proved to be a frighteningly apt name. After collapsing halfway
through the twist, Hawk wound up in the hospital. As he recalled on an episode of the show Scarred,
"There was blood all over my eye and my face. Every time they moved me,
there was searing pain going through my hip."
It turned out that Hawk had fractured his pelvis, thumb,
and skull. Understandably, the injury stuck with him for a while.
"Every time that I would hit my, my hip or my leg at all
during that time, I could feel the shift in there."
Wiz Khalifa was the Chameleon on Season 5 of The Masked Singer.
He made it all the way to the finale and ultimately finished in third place.
In Week 4 of that season, his clue package indicated that he'd lost someone close to
him who was mistreated when she was younger because of her identity. As it turned out,
that was in reference to his sister Lala, who died back in 2017. As he tweeted at the time,
"The loss of my sibling has been the hardest thing I've had to deal with but
[with] your prayers and well wishes my family will get [through] this."
As Khalifa's mother Peachie revealed to Distractify, Lala had died from lymphoma,
which went untreated due to her fear of medical intervention. Lala was also transgender,
which was likely related to the use of rainbows in the Chameleon's clues.
T-Pain won the first season of The Masked Singer dressed as the Monster, thus proving that even
though he's mostly known for AutoTune, he also has incredible natural vocal chops.
"Just to hear all the, the, all the compliments and to hear everybody
praising so much, it was, it was, uh, it was pretty cool."
Being able to prove his talent on a high-profile stage was important to T-Pain,
especially in light of the fact that he later revealed that he'd endured
depression for years due to the reaction from his industry peers over his music.
On an episode of Netflix's This Is Pop, he recounted a conversation he'd had with R&B
superstar Usher, who apparently told him that he'd had a negative impact on the industry.
"That's the very moment that started, like, a four-year depression for me."
This wasn't the first time that T-Pain had opened up about his mental health,
as he told The New Yorker in 2014,
"When people say I suck and I should kill myself, I don't really feel good about that!"
After T-Pain's admission made headlines,
Usher insisted to Billboard that the two were all good. But T-Pain told Insider
that they hadn't spoken and that he'd had to come to terms with it on his own.
Early 2000s teen-pop sensation JoJo appeared on The Masked Singer Season 5 as the Black Swan,
and she ultimately finished in second place. She credited the
experience with her drive to release new music. As she told Entertainment Weekly,
"If it wasn't for the show, I really don't know that I would be in the
mental space that I'm in now to write and perform and to feel confident again."
After JoJo became the youngest solo artist to ever have a song top the Billboard charts,
she disappeared for a while due to record-label disputes.
During her time away, she also struggled with drugs and alcohol. As she admitted to Uproxx,
"There were definitely nights that I stumbled out of clubs and that I blacked out.
I needed to be buzzed to feel okay. I would go to the edge,
stand on my tiptoes on the edge and then come back. I should be dead."
But Jojo's fear of dying ultimately drove her toward sobriety. As she put it to Uproxx,
"I would have ended up like my dad, just going to sleep one day and not waking up."
The singer has turned her family's substance use into art. In particular, as she revealed
to People Magazine, her dad's passing inspired the song "Save My Soul" from her 2016 album Mad Love.
Prolific movie star Danny Trejo stopped by The Masked Singer Season 5 as the Raccoon. He was
ultimately eliminated after singing the Johnny Cash classic "Ring of Fire." Speaking of places
that Johnny Cash sang about, Trejo himself knows a thing or two about California's Folsom Prison,
having served time there and at other prisons for drug dealing and armed robbery.
On one occasion at Soledad State Prison, he was even involved in a riot and wound
up on death row for striking a guard. As he revealed to The Guardian in 2012,
"They said I threw a rock and hit the lieutenant in the head but you know what?
I did hit him in the head with a rock. But I wasn't throwing it at him,
I was throwing it at a group of guys and he happened to be hit."
And as Trejo recalled to NME in 2020,
"They were gonna send us to the gas chamber so I remember making a deal with God and saying,
'If you let me die with dignity, I will say your name every day,
and I will do whatever I can for my fellow man.'"
In an interview with VladTV, Danny Trejo recalled,
"Please don't let me cry and scream. Just let me go!"
There were no witnesses willing to testify to Trejo's actions during the riot, so
he was subsequently released. He worked as a drug rehabilitation counselor for
16 years before he was cast in his first film, and the rest is Hollywood history.
American Idol vet Chris Daughtry was one of the most successful singers to come out of
that talent show, even though he didn't win. His eponymous band dominated 2000s
rock radio with hits like "Home" and "It's Not Over." Then he returned to
reality TV competition on Season 2 of The Masked Singer as the Rottweiler,
as he ultimately finished in second. His appearance on the show surprised even his family,
who didn't expect to see him under the dog costume. As he noted to Entertainment Tonight:
"Just seeing how much it meant to them to see me do well on it. You could see they were so proud."
In much sadder news, a few years after Daughtry competed on the show, his family was struck by
tragedy when his stepdaughter Hannah took her own life. The family revealed that her biological
father had also previously killed himself, and then in an unrelated incident shortly thereafter,
Hannah was shot and left with a prosthetic eye. As the family announced in a statement,
"Hannah was a generous and loving person who wanted more for herself and
others. She will forever be in the hearts and minds of those of us who love her."
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts,
please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ at​ 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.