DWTS Champ Was Begging to Get Sent Home From the Show

ABC

“Dancing With the Stars” season 29 Mirrorball champion Kaitlyn Bristowe admits in a new interview that the show was so “brutal” that she wanted out at the end and didn’t know if she could make it to the finale.

Kaitlyn Admits She Said, ‘Send Me Home, I Can’t Do This Anymore’

On the May 3 episode of “Conversations With Olivia Jade,” which is the podcast hosted by “Dancing With the Stars” season 30 contestant and influencer Olivia Jade Giannulli, the two former contestants dished on how absolutely exhausting the show is, to the point where Kaitlyn wasn’t sure she could finish.

“People don’t understand how tiring that show is and how much work goes into it,” said Olivia.

“It is literally the definition of blood, sweat and tears. You put everything into it — mentally, physically, emotionally. It’s so draining and so much work and so many hours of your day. People really don’t know unless they’ve been on the show like how much work you put into it,” said Kaitlyn.

The former “Bachelorette” went on to say that she was so injured by the end that she almost couldn’t do it anymore.

“I just remember in the last three weeks of it, I was like, ‘Send me home! — can’t do this anymore’ … my ribs were injured, my ankle was injured, I was in pain the whole time and I just had that mentality of ‘you just gotta get through another day’ and then the next day came and ‘you just gotta get through another day,” said Kaitlyn.

But she said that once she got out on the dance floor, all those feelings would go away and she’d think to herself, “I can’t go home!”

Kaitlyn went on to win the Mirrorball trophy with her partner Artem Chigvintsev — who both Kaitlyn and Olivia had nothing but good things to say about, calling him “a lovely man,” though Olivia’s partner was not Artem, but Val Chmerkovskiy.

Kaitlyn Said It Was Also Really Difficult When the Show Ended

Despite how hard it was, Kaitlyn said it was an incredible experience that changed her “whole life and perspective.” But she also said it was really hard for it to be over because the show ends so abruptly — you go from rehearsing for hours and hours each day to nothing.

“It really is a brutal process. Obviously, you get so much out of it, then it’s finished and you go home and it was such a whirlwind and it changes your whole life and perspective and you feel like you’ve accomplished so much and then it just ends so abruptly and you’re like, ‘What just happened?’ and you think you could never do something like that again, but then you miss your partner and everybody around.”

That was part of the reason she had “zero hesitation” when the show asked her to participate in the 2022 “Dancing With the Stars” live tour — it also was “a dream come true” for her to be dancing in what felt like a truly professional capacity.

“Because of my passion for dance my whole life, if you told me I was going to tour on a tour bus dancing with professionals in different cities on a bus, I was like, ‘This is a dream come true,’ so yeah, zero hesitation. I was like, ‘Sign me up, I’ll do the whole tour,” said Kaitlyn — and in fact, she did almost do the entire tour, dancing right alongside all of the pros from January 7 to March 16.

Olivia also admitted to being really nervous to do the show because she had no dance experience, worrying that she would humiliate herself on TV, but “honestly, [she] had so much fun doing it that it made it worth it.”

“Dancing With the Stars” returns for season 31 in the fall of 2022 on Disney Plus.

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