Heavy A DWTS champ was almost prohibited from joining the show.
For many celebrities, athletes, and reality television stars, the decision to join “Dancing With the Stars” is their own and they are free to choose whether or not they’d like to participate if the offer is made by producers. That wasn’t the case for one recent DWTS champ.
On the January 31, 2023, episode of the “Not Skinny But Not Fat” podcast, season 29 winner Kaitlyn Bristowe said that she was told that she “wasn’t allowed” to compete on the show. Right after she finished her season of “The Bachelorette” Bristowe got an offer to compete, but “Bachelor” franchise creator Mike Fleiss told her that she couldn’t.
“I was so angry because I felt that show was so sexist in the first place,” Bristowe said of “The Bachelor” franchise. “I was so annoyed because Sean Lowe did ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ Nick Viall did ‘Dancing With the Stars,'” Bristowe said of her reasons for accepting the offer to join straight away.
“I didn’t know that I had to check with the creator of the show. I was still under contract,” Bristowe said. She went on to say that someone from the franchise sent her an email — “two days before” she was set to fly to New York to be announced as part of the cast — telling her that she couldn’t join.
Here’s what you need to know:
Kaitlyn Bristowe Decided to Question the Email & Fight for Her Spot on DWTS
Bristowe admitted that she could have just let it go and skipped out on “Dancing With the Stars,” but instead, she questioned the reasons she was told that she couldn’t compete. She explained that her “Bachelorette” contract didn’t say that she couldn’t do DWTS but it did say that production had the “right to refuse” her participation in things.
“Why?” she asked, requesting to be put in touch with Fleiss. “I was not taking no for an answer,” she said.
“I finally got in touch with Fleiss and I said, ‘Why can I not do ‘Dancing With the Stars’?” Bristowe said. She explained that Fleiss told her that he was sick of people trying to find fame after going on “The Bachelor” franchise shows.
“I said, ‘dancing has been a passion of mine my whole life.’ And he said, ‘well, Shawn should be your passion now,'” Bristowe recalled. Fleiss was referring to Bristowe’s fiance at the time, Shawn Booth. She ended up being granted permission to do the show, being paired up with Artem Chigvintsev and she became the first person from the “Bachelor” franchise to win a Mirrorball Trophy.
“Bachelorette” star Hannah Brown competed on season 30 and also won the Mirrorball.
Kaitlyn Bristowe Loved Doing DWTS & Says She Misses It
Bristowe had a great experience on “Dancing With the Stars” and was sad when it ended.
“There’s something so magical about watching it. I watched it with my mom from the first season it was on to now. And, you know, knowing what that process is like and the hard work that these dancers put in every day and how hard it is on your body and your mind, I love supporting the show and I actually miss it so much that I get this overwhelming feeling of joy that I, like, cry on every dance and laugh and I’m like, ‘Oh, I miss it,'” she told Us Weekly in October 2022.
“It’s such a family over there,” she added.
She went on to say that she and Chigvintsev are no longer in contact.
“You know, what’s funny is I actually feel like Artem and I had — it [was] like a business,” she said.
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