NEED TO KNOW
- Following their shocking Dancing with the Stars elimination, Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas appeared on Alex Cooper’s Call Her Daddy podcast
- During the podcast appearance, they performed a freestyle that would have been their final dance if they made it to the season 34 finale
- The dance duo also touched on the backlash they received throughout the season and Leavitt’s rumored feud with her Mormon Wives costar Jen Affleck
Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas’ elimination from Dancing with the Stars didn’t stop them from showcasing their freestyle routine.
At the end of the duo’s recent appearance on Call Her Daddy on Nov. 26, host Alex Cooper asked if they wanted to perform what would have been their final dance had they made it to the DWTS finale, which aired the night prior to the podcast episode.
Without hesitation, Ballas, 39, responded, “It would be a pleasure.”
The freestyle to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” — along with snippets of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ theme song — seemingly responded to all the hate the pair received during their time on the competition series’ 34th season, showing the reality star, 32, fighting off phones in her face as they watched her fall on her face before Ballas picked her back up and they kissed their reflections in a mirror.
It ended with a track repeatedly playing Leavitt’s viral declaration on DWTS when she shouted, “I f—— love this show!”
Call Her Daddy/YouTube
Earlier in the episode, Leavitt opened up about the “rollercoaster of emotions” she felt after being sent home in the semi-finals.
“I feel grateful, but I also feel sad,” she said.
The elimination came amid backlash toward the mom-of-three for a variety of reasons, including her having a degree in dance and comments she made on the recent season of Mormon Wives about only rejoining the cast so she could audition for DWTS.
“I was very clear why I came back that season,” she noted. “You either had respect for it, or you were like, ‘Oh my gosh.'”
She later added: “I already knew the persona that I had in the media. I just felt like that was gonna carry with me onto Dancing With The Stars.”
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Call Her Daddy/YouTube
While she said she’s “definitely become a little bit more desensitized” to negative feedback, she admitted that it was “triggering” to watch Ballas be caught in the crossfire.
“I had experienced it, but having someone that I loved and cared about so much experiencing that, in turn, hurt me,” she said. “Then we experienced it together.”
“At times, I felt like it was my fault because I was like, ‘Oh, maybe it’s because of me. Maybe it’s because he’s partnered with me,'” Leavitt continued. “So then it felt like my fault. It was just like a roller coaster of emotions during that time.”
She and the pro dancer also acknowledged that there was an increase in hateful comments at the five-week mark.
“It just exploded, and then it just went south,” Leavitt recalled.
