Irene spills RuPaul's Drag Race reunion tea on Salina read

Irene Dubois proudly stoked juicy tension at the RuPaul's Drag Race season 15 reunion that you could cut with a 40-inch knife.

The Seattle performer exclusively reflects on Friday's shady reunion episode in a candid interview with EW's Quick Drag podcast (below), in which she opens up about rekindling the flames of Wig Gate with Luxx Noir London and reflects on her instantly infamous Salina EsTitties read.

"The energy in the room was awkward, it sort of sucked all the air out of the room," Irene recalls of the moment she read Salina for having a "fake accent," which clearly rubbed Salina the wrong way judging by the displeased look on her face and her response of "Okay, white girl."

"It was one of those things that I knew was going to be risky," the first-out queen explains. "I knew that, as a joke, to some people it was going to seem inappropriate. I wasn't trying to come from a place of invalidating her experience or anything like that."

In a prior interview with EW, Salina revealed that, as a person of color, she felt societal pressure to code-switch, often changing her accent to assimilate into different groups throughout her life.

"I also understand that, to me, as a white person, I don't have the full understanding of what it really means to have to code-switch, so the humor I see in it is maybe not there for other people — especially people of color," Irene says, later adding, "It is one of those things that, if I could go back, I probably would not have said."

Irene Dubois on the 'RuPaul's Drag Race' season 15 reunion. World of Wonder/MTV

Irene, who was eliminated at the end of the season 15 premiere in January, says she and Salina spoke in the dressing room after filming wrapped, without any cameras around.

"It was just the two of us, no one else around, and we could have a conversation that didn't feel performative or like it was drama for other people to consume , but, really just to actually talk as people," Irene reveals. "First, I talked about some other things. I wanted to test the waters and see how she was feeling because I could tell in the moment that she didn't like that read, and I sort of wanted to make sure that she was even willing to talk to me and hear what I had to say. Sometimes it's not easy to resolve conflict in the heat of the moment. I wanted to make sure that the heat of that moment had worn off. We joked back and forth, and I said, 'Hey, I need you to know that wasn't personal and I want to see if we're okay, and I'm sorry if that hurt your feelings.'"

Elsewhere at the reunion, Irene pulled out a tape measure to finally settle the season-long debate over whether or not Luxx's entrance wig was actually 40 inches long — and she says the bit was planned between the pair before heading to the reunion stage.

"Luxx and I had a conversation about 40-Inch Gate prior to the reunion, because I told her, 'You know, Luxx, I understand this is probably super annoying for you and I understand you hear about this way more than you'd like to, [but] unfortunately, I was on barely any of this season, and 40-Inch Gate is sort of my only storyline, so it's going to come up at the reunion for me and I'm going to have to lean into it a little bit. I hope that's okay with you.' That's why when I did pull out the tape measure, we were able to go back and forth and have a good time."

But, Irene observes, the moment could've gone further: "Of course she didn't bring the wig," she says with a laugh. "She doesn't want that s--- measured on camera!"

Irene says her favorite moment of the reunion happened shortly after they sat down to begin filming, when she made an epic joke about her ice water tutorial from the talent show episode after RuPaul asked "for a cup of hot water" to soothe her voice, and it was eventually brought to her by season 2 alum (and Ru's Emmy-winning makeup artist), Raven.

"She and I were seated right next to each other, as you saw on camera, and she sipped the hot water and went, 'Mmm, that is so good,'" Irene says. "And I leaned over to her and I went, 'If you like that, I've got a recipe for some ice water that I think you would love. And she went, 'Oh, you know, I'll have to try that!'"

Listen to Irene's full Quick Drag recap of the season 15 reunion above, and hear more from the cast in our podcast feed below.

Subscribe toEW's Quick Drag podcast for recaps of RuPaul's Drag Race, including reactions with the cast, special guests, and more.

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