Allison Holker’s daughter Weslie is coming to her defense amid the ongoing social media drama regarding her This Far memoir detailing Stephen “tWitch” Boss’ alleged addiction and mental health struggles.
“My stepdad’s been gone for two years and I’m still getting hate comments,” Weslie, 16, said in a Friday, January 10, Instagram video. “It’s just complicated and for no reason. It’s not just a social media gig; this is literally my life. I’m so sick of getting hate comments and seeing my mom get hate for literally losing the person that she loves and I have siblings. This is their dad — this is who they’re gonna grow up and they’re gonna see all this on social media that’s so hurtful.”
Holker, 36, was married to Boss from 2013 to 2022, when he died by suicide at age 40. In addition to Weslie, they shared son Maddox, 8, and daughter Zaia, 5. (According to Weslie, she was never legally adopted by Boss, though she says he “literally raised” her.)
“I get that my relationship with Stephen seems complicated, but this man raised me my entire life — since I was 1,” Weslie explained. “I have a biological dad [and] I have a relationship with him, but Stephen was the person that raised me. He literally raised me and it’s hurtful to see… so many new stories. It’s so much more complicated and I don’t know how to explain it well.”
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She added, “This is my dad, this is not, like, a joke to me. For 13 years, my parents were together, and for 13 years he was the person that I would go to about everything. He’s the person that I would cry to. He would wake me up every morning, we’d get breakfast and he was the person I’d see when he’d get home from work. We lived in the same four walls and now I’m getting hate for him leaving — and I don’t get it. It’s hurtful.”
Holker’s upcoming memoir, set to be released later this year, has made waves amongst Boss’ family and friends. After People published an interview with Holker regarding her book, many members of his family slammed the Dancing With the Stars alum for writing about Boss’ alleged addiction struggles and publishing his private journals. Holker, meanwhile, has denounced the accusations and stated that her “only intention” is to raise awareness for those with similar substance abuse and mental health issues. She also says she plans to donate all book proceeds to a nonprofit founded in Boss’ honor.
“I see people saying it’s not my place because I’m not his biological daughter, but he never made me feel like anything besides his daughter — and I think that speaks to who he was,” Weslie said of her decision to speak out in the wake of the online backlash and criticism towards her mother. “Nobody’s sitting up here trying to bash him, like, he was a good person.”
She continued, “I’m still trying to be respectful to everybody. I’m just so over, for instance, his family, everyone’s headlining now — and these are big players in my life and big players in my siblings’ life and my mom’s life. These are all people I’ve grown up with. And to see them now … it’s like, I don’t know. I’m trying to be respectful but it’s complicated because I speak to Stephen’s mom weekly at some point.”
According to Weslie, she would only see Boss’ family “once or twice a year” while he was still alive.
“But, you guys have to understand that it’s because they live in another state and we literally live in another state,” she explained. “It’s not, like, we’re neighbors. It’s not, like, we could just see them whenever we wanted, and now my mom’s constantly making the effort so the kids are a part of their lives. I don’t make the effort, but that’s just how I am.”
Weslie now claims that she feels “disrespected by them” and no longer wants to be in communication.
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“They’ve gone on social media saying that ‘Blood’s thicker than water,’ and that’s a direct [hit to] me and my mom,” she alleged. “And if you don’t see me as Stephen’s daughter, that’s cool, take it how you want. I know for a fact that’s never how he saw it, and it’s literally just hurtful. … I’ve slowly started to remove myself from [them] because they don’t make me feel comfortable, and my mom’s the one making the effort and feeling like it’s a need and a necessity to see them because she cares.”
Boss’ family also claimed that Holker made everyone sign a nondisclosure agreement before attending his 2022 funeral service.
“Y’all love to argue about the NDAs,” Weslie explained. “But in one day, we had an open casket, like, viewing for Stephen. We had a funeral, and then we had a week, and my mom asked for NDAs to be signed when we were seeing Stephen’s body because God forbid somebody that went to that took a photo of Stephen and put it on the internet or shared it with somebody else. That’s the type of thing that NDAs are for. It’s not so you can never talk about Stephen.”
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Weslie added, “I’m fed up because NDAs are so important, and if you guys don’t agree, that’s cool. I’m grateful for my mom making sure that everybody signed NDAs, and she put up that rule.”
Holker was apparently “lenient” with her NDA request, according to the teenager.
“She understands at the end of the day, like, this is family,” Weslie stated. “So y’all want to disrespect her [while] she’s still nice, she’s still kind, she’s still forgiving, but you have to know, like, even when Stephen was alive people that attended our events, they would have to sign NDAs. But now, just because it’s my mom handing the paper, it’s different and it’s just annoying. Like, for that whole day was supposed to be beautiful, and instead, it was less than that. We were gonna say our goodbyes, and instead, people were yelling at each other and bashing my mom and, like, that’s a day that’s taken away from her — she can’t remember it as being the day that we all wanted to be because his family was making it otherwise.”
Weslie further denounced claims that Holker is “money hungry” or seeking “more fame.”
“That’s not how my mom is. Trust me when I say my mom is good — she doesn’t need [money],” Weslie said. “It’s just disappointing. … My mom’s made her efforts [with his family]. She’s tried for as long as she could, but this is the kind of turning point where it’s like, this stops like, it’s beyond, just like, trying to maintain a relationship now it’s like y’all burn bridges and literally it’s OK.”
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Weslie further implored her followers to “leave the family alone.”
“I’m not a person to sit up here and cry. I’m not going to be here and get emotional. But like, y’all could not just leave somebody passing away and leave the family alone?” she said. “Like, Oh my gosh, you guys just have to add to it for what, like, I don’t know, and it’s just it’s disappointing because if all of you say that you held him in such high regard, like, this is not the type of family dynamic we had and whatever y’all want to push on social media, like, I’m gonna grow up seeing it like my siblings are gonna grow up seeing it. Also, they’re gonna have to form their own opinion of who their dad was and we only speak about him in such a beautiful light. I loved him. I have nothing negative to say about him.”
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