Speaking to BBC Newsbeat after celebrating overnight, Flesh said the win still feels "surreal" and that she spent the whole evening "smiling, crying, and laughing". She was crowned by last year's winner Bones, who is also her best friend and drag sister; the pair perform together as Heavenly Bodies.
The BBC announced its decision to shelve the programme shortly after the latest series began airing, saying it was facing "very difficult choices" amid "significant financial pressures". Flesh will be the last queen crowned on the BBC before the UK edition moves to Wow Presents Plus, a streaming platform owned by the production company behind the show.
Flesh says the move to Wow could widen the range of performers and subcultures featured on the show, but worries the shift to subscription could reduce the audience for drag. "This is where it feels slightly sadder that we're leaving the BBC because for all of the parameters that it created that limited what we could do, there was more exposure than drag has ever been given," she said. She is "concerned" about the "knock-on effect" this could have on the future of the UK drag industry. "Without that exposure, there will be less demand and with less demand and less exposure, events won't be able to be created," she said. She encouraged people to connect with their local drag community and performers to consider ways they can evolve performances for new audiences.
Some fans welcomed the prospect of a new chapter that might include bigger cash prizes, like in other spin-offs, while others fear leaving the BBC will mean less representation for LGBTQ+ culture.
Flesh took the £25,000 cash prize after impressing judges in the final maxi challenge, a megamix of girl group anthems from past series. She went through the series without ever being in the bottom two and only had to lip-sync for the first time in the final, when the top three performed David Bowie's Modern Love after Alik was eliminated. She called the finale a "really fun and tasteful way to reflect on the iconography of Drag Race UK", but revealed the final group of queens thought the "writing was on the wall" for the show when they were asked to do the mix.
The Miss Congeniality title went to Paris Baby, chosen by a secret cast vote that RuPaul said she won by a landslide. Paris, who had spats with KY Kelly during the series and said she had been blocked on social media by some competitors, including Flesh, said they were now “besties”: “Hopefully the world can now see there's a lot more to Paris Baby.”