Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss’ family, friends shout Allison Holker over memories

Family and friends of the late Stephen “tWitch” Boss are speaking out against his widow Allison Holker’s all-encompassing memoir and its related press, calling it a “smear campaign.”

The comments on social media appeared the following Tuesday a new interview with PEOPLE in support of her upcoming memoir, So far (out Feb. 4), with Holker claiming that Boss – who took her own life aged 40 in December 2022 – had stashed a “cornucopia” of drugs, including mushrooms, pills and “other drugs”, she had to to “look up,” inside his shoe boxes, which she found after his passing.

“I was with one of my really dear friends and we were cleaning out the closet and picking out an outfit for him for the funeral,” Holker, 36, told the magazine.

“It was a really eye-opening moment for me because there were a lot of things I discovered in our closet that I didn’t know existed. It was very alarming for me to learn that so much was happening that I had no idea about. It was a really scary moment in my life to find out, but it also helped me process that he went through so much and he hid so much, and there must have been a lot of shame in that.”

Family friend Courtney Ann Platt shared a picture of the story on her Instagram Tuesday, with a lengthy caption slamming the memoir and allegations. “Anyone who knows me knows that I go straight to the source during a conflict and handle my business, but since there’s clearly no shame in being so public, I haven’t said a word for two years, but now going I,” she began.

Platt, who said she was there the day Holker and Boss got engaged and later when they were married, struck the book and its press as “by far the most tacky, classless, opportunistic act I’ve ever seen in the whole my life.”

She continued: “We all had to sign a weird NDA to attend his funeral (even his own mother who you’ve treated like trash this whole time and let’s just remember you wouldn’t even have a husband , if it wasn’t for her) not sharing anything or ruining his name like it was anyone’s thoughts in the first place and here you go and write a book with all the dirty laundry smearing his name and trying to dim the light loyal, loving, light, it was your husband, my friend.”

Platt also took issue with “publishing a book that shamelessly splits the pages” of Boss’s journal. “What a joke. Yes, he took his own life, which is a fact we all still can’t fathom, and he clearly had mental issues, hurt so deeply, and this is your example of empathy? Of your love?” she added.

Platt concluded, “This smear campaign for a buck is absolutely not what he would have ever wanted. No matter how bad he was. Not for a second. You’re a living, breathing bulldozer. Stick to your own demons. Shame on you Allison, shame on you money hungry team Rest in peace my friend not your PR.”

Boss’s brother, Dre Roseand then shared a snap of Platt’s post on his Instagram Stories with the caption, “No lies told…” Although he hasn’t shared his own post, Rose has also reposted many other similar stories from others slamming the memoir and his claims.

When reached by Weekly entertainmenta representative for Holker declined to comment, but in her interview with PEOPLE, she said she shared the stories in hopes of helping others.

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“It was really hard to put all the pieces together. Through certain discussions, even with friends and things that have been said, reading through his journals … you realize that he went through a lot as a child and never faced it, ” she said. “It’s hard to think that he never opened up to anyone and wanted to face it, to come through on the other side. I really hope that people dealing with the same thing will help themselves out of the shadows and (know) you’re going to be okay.”

On Tuesday, Holker shared the PEOPLE interview on his own Instagram Stories, as well as several messages in support of it. In one, actress and dancer Jenna Dewan wrote: “Love you @allisonholker and sharing this will help others seek help.”