Further investigation is needed into the death of RuPaul’s Drag Race star The Vivienne, a coroner has said, after postmortem testing revealed an “unnatural” cause.

The body of James Lee Williams, who performed as the drag queen, was found at their home in Chorlton-by-Backford, near Chester, on Sunday 5 January.

Cheshire Coroner’s Court in Warrington opened an inquest at a short hearing on Wednesday.

Williams, 32, was found in their bathroom, the court heard. Police attended and confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances.

Coroner’s officer Amanda Edgar said postmortem testing had taken place and identified “an unnatural cause of death”.

Williams was identified by their father, the court heard.

Area coroner Victoria Davies said: “Given the unnatural cause of death identified on postmortem testing it is appropriate for me to formally open the inquest into the death of James Lee Williams.”

Further investigations are required, she said, and the case was adjourned for a full inquest, set for 30 June.

Williams, who grew up in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, before moving to Liverpool, won the first series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK and came third in the 2023 edition of Dancing On Ice.

Their drag name came from their love of legendary British designer Vivienne Westwood.

RuPaul’s Drag Race judge Michelle Visage was among those who paid tribute after news of their death emerged, saying she was “utterly heartbroken” by the news.

RuPaul said the world had lost an “incredibly talented queen and a lovely human being”.

Read more: The Vivienne – a ‘drag trailblazer’

Contestants from the show including Tia Kofi, Baga Chipz, and Cheryl, along with Steps singer Ian “H” Watkins, TV personality Kim Woodburn and Coronation Street actress Claire Sweeney, were among those who attended their funeral in Denbighshire, North Wales, in February.

Williams also performed as the Wicked Witch of the West in a tour of The Wizard Of Oz musical across the UK and Ireland, and reprised the role in the West End in 2024.

They were due to be back on stage this month as the Childcatcher in a tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a role they first portrayed last year.

Kanye West’s Yeezy online shopping platform has been taken down after selling T-shirts featuring a swastika.

The rapper, also known as Ye, used a Super Bowl commercial on Sunday to send people to his website to buy the clothing emblazoned with the Nazi symbol – an image often used by the extreme-right.

The ecommerce platform Shopify, which hosts many online shops and businesses, has deactivated his site and his domain name yeez.com is being sold for $98,999 (£79,692).

Shopify said in an emailed statement to Sky News’ sister channel NBC News: “All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform. This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms so we removed them from Shopify.”

West’s representative is yet to respond to a request from NBC for comment.

The white T-shirts featured a black swastika on the front and were the only items for sale on the front page of yeezy.com.

No text or explanation accompanied the item, just the letters “HH-01.” They were available for $20 (£16).

Initially, West’s site showed a notice from Shopify which said the store was “unavailable”.

But the site now redirects to the registrar GoDaddy, the platform which manages yeez.com, where a page shows the domain name is for sale.

GoDaddy has not yet responded to questions about the sale and whether it was enforced by the company or initiated by West.

The decision to sell the T-shirt triggered widespread criticism, including from the Anti-Defamation League (ADF) which posted a statement on X on Monday, describing the shirt sales as further proof of West’s antisemitism.

The organisation, formed to combat anti-Jewish bigotry and discrimination, explained that the swastika was adopted by Hitler and “continues to threaten and instil fear in those targeted by antisemitism and white supremacy”.

The ADF also said the T-shirt was labelled on Kanye’s website as ‘HH-01’ – suggesting this was code for “Heil Hitler”.

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West has in recent days been posting antisemitic messages on X, as well as writing “I love Hitler” and “I’m a Nazi”. His account then had a “sensitive content warning” added to it before he posted a final message.

“I’m logging out of Twitter,” he wrote. “I appreciate [X owner] Elon [Musk] for allowing me to vent.”

After his account was deactivated on Monday, his spokesperson Milo Yiannopoulos issued an explanation.

“Ye is an intergenerational artist and icon who continues to redefine the limits of creativity and free expression. He has deactivated his X account for the time being,” he said in a statement.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism was joined by Friends star David Schwimmer in calling for Elon Musk to remove West from X over a string of offensive posts.

One of the most successful figures in hop-hip, West built up a fashion brand called Yeezy which began as a collaboration with Adidas. But the German sportswear giant cut ties with him in 2022 over his antisemitic remarks and eventually reached a settlement in October.

Lisa Riley has reacted to reports that Peter Kay likened a heckler to her, insisting she’s “not offended”.

The Bolton comedian was performing his Manchester gig on Saturday night when a woman was removed by security guards after shouting “We love you Peter”. Kay is said to have likened her to Riley as she was being taken out.

The audience member has said she is “annoyed and upset” about the comments.

“To go to a show and feel like you’re having the mick taken out of you because of your weight, I was just a bit shocked,” she told the Manchester Evening News.

“The whole arena was laughing, I think they thought it was part of the show but there was a nastiness to his voice. It was like he was trying to get the crowd against me – it just wasn’t nice, to be honest.”

Riley, 48, is best known for playing Mandy Dingle in Emmerdale and also fronted You’ve Been Framed in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Appearing to respond to her impromptu mention during the show, Riley posted a picture on Instagram on Monday which read: “Keep calm and laugh”. She added the message: “It’s a laugh, it’s funny!!!”

She then followed it up on Tuesday with a post on Instagram which said: “Please draw a line under this now. I am not offended, never was offended. I love Peter Kay to pieces. Laughter is my favourite medicine”.

Kay was also understood to have thrown two men out of the same gig after one repeatedly shouted “garlic bread,” which is one of Kay’s catchphrases.

Kay told ITV’s Good Morning Britain he had taken action against hecklers as they were ruining the show for others, and it was “no longer fair” to the other audience members.

In response to his likening of one audience member to Riley, he said in a statement to the show: “I didn’t realise it was an insult. She did look remarkably like Lisa Riley, I didn’t realise that was an insult”.

One audience member told the Manchester Evening News that Kay had “shouted” at the hecklers for “a good three to five minutes” during the show.

They said the audience was mixed in their reaction: “Some couldn’t believe it and were obviously annoyed and others were laughing, either thinking it was part of the show or going along with it.”

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Kay, 51, who has been performing his record-breaking Better Late Than Never Again tour since 2022, recently performed his 100th show at the AO Arena – the same venue the three hecklers were expelled from.

Tickets to watch the show start at £35, but go up to about £350 for top-notch seats.

Sky News has contacted representatives for Kay for comment.

Kay is currently scheduled to perform his tour into spring 2026.