Ellen DeGeneres has said the best way for people to honour her late co-star and friend Stephen “tWitch” Boss is to “do the things that he loved” and “let people know we are there for them”.
In a video posted to Instagram on Friday, the chat show host became emotional as she admitted it has been “really tough for everyone” since the dancer and DJ died last week aged 40.
Boss featured on The Ellen DeGeneres show for many years as her DJ and was also a former So You Think You Can Dance contestant.
Multiple US outlets reported that Boss died by suicide, citing the LA County Medical Examiner.
In the video, DeGeneres said: “Hey, everybody. I just wanted to say the past 11 days have been really tough for everyone.
“Everyone is in pain and trying to make sense of it and we’ll never make sense of it. And the holidays are hard, I think anyway.
“But to honour Twitch, I think the best thing that we can do is to laugh and hug each other and play games and dance and sing. That’s the way we honour him, is we do the things that he loved to do, which is dancing, he loved music, he loved games, so we do that.”
She continued: “And I know it seems hard, it seems impossible, but that’s how we honour him and hug each other and tell each other we love each other and let people know we are there for them and check in on people.”
The chat show host added that she knows it is “not a happy holiday” this year, but wanted others to think about Boss at this time and to “send love to one another”.
Following the news of Boss’ death, which was confirmed by his wife Allison Holker Boss on Wednesday, figures from the world of entertainment paid tribute including DeGeneres.
At the time, she said she was “heartbroken” and described Boss as “pure love and light”.
Jennifer Lopez, Questlove and Michelle Obama were also among those who remembered the US dancer and DJ, with Lopez calling him a “beautiful soul”.
Boss is survived by his wife and three children Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia.