Heavy/Getty "Dancing With The Stars" alum JoJo Siwa
They didn’t compete on the same season of “Dancing With The Stars,” but former contestants JoJo Siwa, 20, and Nick Viall, 42, are in lock-step with each other now — so close, in fact, that Siwa says the “Bachelor Nation” alum is like family to her.
When Viall competed on “Dancing With The Stars” in 2017, Siwa was a 14-year-old YouTube sensation who had just signed a talent deal with Nickelodeon, per Us Weekly. By 2020, Siwa was so famous that she was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. The following year, she competed on season 30 of “DWTS,” landing in the runner-up spot with pro dancer Jenna Johnson.
Her fame has allowed her to meet all kinds of celebrities, but she never could have predicted who she’d form tight bonds with. In a new Instagram post, 20-year-old Siwa revealed that she’s become so close with Viall, 42, and their mutual buddy, former “Bachelorette” star Tyler Cameron, 30, that she considers both reality stars part of her “chosen family.”
“The band is back together!!😎 If someone told me a year ago that these 2 boys would become such a massive part of my life I would’ve never believed you,” she wrote, sharing that the trio became friends while filming the second season of “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” premiering on FOX on September 25, 2023.
Here’s what you need to know:
Fans Love Unexpected Trio: ‘So Here For This Squad!’
On August 24, Siwa posted a series of photos and videos of her, Viall and Cameron attending country singer Zach Bryan’s concert in Los Angeles that night, as well as images from their time filming “Special Forces” together.
She wrote, “‘Special Forces’ brought us together just a few months ago and mannnn am I grateful🤍 for these 2 AND for the rest of the chosen family gained from forces, a bond that will last for life!!🙏🏼💪🏼🇺🇸🇬🇧🤍.”
Viall, who announced earlier this month that he and his fiancée Natalie Joy are expecting a baby, replied to Siwa, “Thanks for keeping us in line duty recruit ❤️” and Joy added, “welcome to the family!!!! ❤️❤️❤️”
Cameron responded, “Love you jojo! So grateful that we were brought together through special forces!”
Fans loved seeing the unlikely trio together, celebrating that they’ve created such a special bond.
One wrote, “You don’t even know how much I love this friendship! Yes, I’m so here for this squad!”
Another commented, “❤️❤️❤️ Love that u not only were brave enough to go thru with this & I’m sure gained so much from ur experience, but made new lasting friends as well. Looks like a blast😍🙌🏻”
Siwa, Viall and Cameron were part of the star-studded cast who recently filmed “Special Forces,” per People. The contestants include actress Tara Reid, “Vanderpump Rules” star Tom Sandoval, Bob Saget’s wife Kelly Rizzo, Olympic skiier Bode Miller, “Beverly Hills, 90210” and “DWTS” alum Brian Austin Green, and “Chrisley Knows Best” star Savannah Chrisley — rumored to be a “DWTS” season 32 contestant.
According to FOX, viewers will witness them being “faced with the harsh reality of winter warfare training on the mountains of New Zealand where the terrain and freezing temperatures are brutal and the tasks will feel like torture.” The famous contestants — or “recruits” — will face challenges including being submerged in a frozen lake, crossing over a ravine atop a snow-capped mountain peak and trying to escape out of a helicopter in icy waters.
JoJo Siwa Made Headlines for Comments She Made on Nick Viall’s Podcast About Candace Cameron Bure
When Siwa appeared her newfound friend’s podcast, The Viall Files in July, she made headlines again for doubling down on her past comments about fellow “DWTS” Season 18 alum Candace Cameron Bure.
In a TikTok video last summer, Siwa revealed Bure was the “rudest celebrity” she’d ever met based on an interaction they’d had years before. She told Viall it was at the “Fuller House” premiere, adding that “Candace might have been having a day.”
She told Viall the two mended fences over the phone, but by November 2022, Siwa was upset with Bure again over comments she made to the Wall Street Journal about her move from Hallmark Channel to the Great American Family cable network. When asked whether her new network, for which she’s both a star and creative advisor, would feature movies with same-sex couples like Hallmark has, Bure said she thought they’d focus on “traditional marriage” stories instead.
Siwa came out as pansexual in 2021, according to The Today Show, and was among the celebrities who took offense to Bure’s comments, calling them “rude and hurtful.” When Viall asked her on his podcast about the situation, Siwa said that she thought Bure’s comments were made to intentionally “put down LGBTQIA” and to say “that she was specifically gonna make movies that had no representation of LGBTQIA.”
“It’s fine if … it’s just your movie’s storyline,” Siwa continued. “Not everything needs to be gay, essentially. But when you’re doing it out of spite to say that ‘too (many programs are) about LGBTQ right now, you guys suck and I want to make a movie about traditional marriage and you’re not traditional,’ that got to me a little bit.”
Saying that she realized then she and Bure were never going to see eye to eye, Siwa said, “I wish she was able to be a little more open, a little more accepting. I’m okay with calling her out in the way that I did. For a while, I regretted it, but after I found out that article about her not wanting anything to do with LGBTQIA, that’s my people, you know? I gotta stand up for my people.”
When Viall’s producers read some of Bure’s quotes from the article, in which she mentioned the need for more Christian-based family programming, Siwa got fired up again.
She said, “Why is LGBTQIA not allowed to be good, loving, Christian, you know what I mean? You can be gay and you can look up to the Lord. Why not?”