Whitney Leavitt and Mark Ballas spilled all the juicy details about their time on Dancing With the Stars following their shocking elimination.
The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives star, 32, and the professional dancer, 39, appeared on the Wednesday, November 26, episode of Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast. The duo also performed the freestyle that they never got to show on the ABC dance competition, using Broadway theatrics to address online hate and bullying.
“I think that day, we kind of had a gut feeling to be honest,” Ballas said of getting eliminated during the semifinals on November 18, recalling how he had told Leavitt, “Let’s just go out. Let’s let’s enjoy ourselves. Let’s have fun. Go for it. Like, let your hair down. Enjoy this.”
Leavitt and Ballas were frontrunners throughout season 34 of Dancing With the Stars, so many fans were surprised when they were sent home. (Five couples advanced to the Tuesday, November 25, finale: Robert Irwin and Witney Carson, Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy, Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sosa, Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten, and Dylan Efron and Daniella Karagach. Irwin, 21, and Carson, 32, ultimately won the mirrorball trophy.)
Keep scrolling to read the biggest revelations from Leavitt and Ballas’ podcast appearance:
Mark Ballas Recalls Giving Whitney Leavitt a Pep Talk Ahead of Their Elimination
“My strategy is always, ‘Do your f***ing best,’” Ballas said. “Come out swinging. Do the best you can. Because the reality is, I’m gonna tell you right now: This is not the first time that someone who is an amazing, incredible, dynamic performer has been eliminated early. It happened to me in season 5 with Sabrina Bryan. But this is the first time I feel like it’s happened with this new TikTok, Instagram hype.”
During their last time performing together on the show, “I felt our dances were solid,” Leavitt said. “Like, that Viennese waltz that we did was one of my favorite dances that we’ve done. It just felt off. It didn’t feel like the other Tuesdays that we had had.”
Ballas explained, “I’m a over-rehearser. I like to rehearse to the point where it’s just so ingrained in your body. I hate leaving things to chance. Might be old-school, but that’s how I was raised when I was dancing. It’s just, you rehearse it, rehearse, rehearse it so you don’t have to think. And in between our first dance and second one, we were [backstage] running it through.”
He noticed at the time that Leavitt was getting “emotional.” As a result, “I kind of had to go into football-coach mode, where I was like, ‘You can do this!’”
Ballas “was starting to get worried that she’s going to go out there and black out.”
Leavitt had an ominous feeling, “like this was our last dance, which in turn, made it a little bit more emotional.”
Ballas and Leavitt Share Hateful Comments That Affected Them the Most
Cooper, 31, reminded the pair that they had received “one of the highest scores that night,” with a 58 out of 60 for both of their performances. She asked for their take on why they didn’t get the viewer votes to remain on the show.
“I don’t know,” Leavitt said. “I mean, if I was speculating, I’d say, ‘Yeah, maybe ‘Secret Lives.’ Because it was such a huge divide. Like, you either really loved me for that, or you really hated me for that. So, maybe it swayed some people.”
Weighing in, Ballas said, “Sometimes this s***t happens … with such a stacked cast and really great talent. Great talent, all-around.”
He then acknowledged the mean-spirited online discussion targeting them during their Dancing partnership.
“I think with the intensity of the show and how big it’s gotten — which I love so much — everybody’s been getting backlash online,” he said. “It wasn’t just us. Yes, ours was very intense, but when something’s this big, I’m sure as you know, there’s always going to be naysayers. There’s always going to be people hating on you. I think there was just like a window of weeks where it was just, like, goddamn.”
When Cooper pressed them to share examples of fan criticism that especially stung, Ballas responded, “It’s wild. OK. This is really heavy. … You can edit it out if you not want, but like, this is one that I just got like randomly. … This is after one of our dances: ‘Are you that cheap of a c*** to rot and do this? Damn, you’re special. You’re completely worthless. And I hope you f***ing burn in hell one day.’ That’s just one of them.”
Ballas added that the internet trolling is “relentless like that, over a dance show.”
Leavitt, for her part, said she’s “definitely become a little bit more desensitized to it. Because I’ve experienced it for years. But I think, like, what was a little bit triggering was watching someone experience that for the first time for something, for what? Like, it just it made no sense to me. And then, I also at times felt like it was my fault because I was like, ‘Oh, like maybe … it’s because of me, maybe it’s because [Ballas is] partnered with me.’ So then, it felt like my fault. Like, it was just like a roller coaster of emotions like during that time.”
Leavitt Says She Knew She’d Lose ‘Dancing With the Stars’
Cooper asked Leavitt to respond to her detractors’ view that she’s “too opportunistic,” “arrogant” and ambitious.
“Yeah. I mean, I’m gonna be honest with you. I never thought I was winning Dancing with the Stars. I really didn’t,” Leavitt bluntly declared.
Ballas agreed, saying, “We really knew that.”
“We knew that from the beginning,” Leavitt said, laughing. “But I wanted that experience. And I would hope that anyone that had a dream or something that they want in their life or [to] experience … would go after it.”
She noted: “That’s how I’ve always been. And it’s like, oh … this is something that I want in my life. This is a dream that I have. I’m going to — while still having my morals and values — go after that.”
Leavitt said, “If I was a man then, yeah, I think it would have been fine. I think they would have said, ‘F*** yeah, you go after that.’”
Leavitt Reveals Her Status With ‘Secret Lives’ Costar Jen Affleck
The mom of three spoke candidly about Affleck, 26, who was also a contestant on season 34. Cooper brought up Affleck’s October elimination, when Leavitt was caught on camera seemingly “smirking” and then covering her mouth.
“I thought I was getting eliminated every Tuesday,” Leavitt replied. “Every single Tuesday I was mentally preparing myself. So in that moment I felt two emotions: It was one where it was like, ‘Oh my God, they didn’t call my name, but oh my God, now my friend’s going home. Two emotions in that moment. I think, you know, it’s a relief, and then it’s like, Oh wait, but now somebody is going home and now is leaving this experience.”
Leavitt said she doesn’t “remember smiling, but if anything it was relief.” She told Cooper that she felt “no excitement whatsoever” over Affleck departing the show, and that “it sucked” when Affleck subsequently told her TikTok followers that she wasn’t “rooting” for her.
“Jen understands what it’s like being in the public eye, being in the reality space, getting the hate,” she said. “She’s experienced it. … It didn’t feel great that she fed into that, that she decided to go on a Live and say, ‘Yeah, I’m not going to vote for her.’ I mean, she could have just said who she was voting for. She didn’t need to say who she wasn’t voting for.”
At the moment, she noted, “The relationship’s not great. I don’t really even know if there is one right now. There was a lot that happened while we were doing Dancing with the Stars. We were also filming Secret Life during the time. So, I know the audience is going to be able to see that story when that comes out next year.”
Ballas Responds to the Ticket Giveaway Controversy
In October, the dance pro and Leavitt announced plans to send two winners to the DWTS ballroom, then had to retract the offer after being informed by ABC that that could not give away tickets to a live show.
“When this came up, I promise you, it was super innocent,” Ballas told Cooper. “It was so casual. We had talked to [our] teams about it. ‘Hey, we want to do a fun giveaway.’”
He added, “We’ve given away tickets to fans lots of times. There was no, ‘prove to us you’re voting for us.’ I think Whitney articulated even in the video. ‘Even if you’re not voting for us, this is an experience for everyone.’ It’s just meant to be a bit of fun. It was two tickets. When it all got that backlash? Crazy. I was like, ‘You know what, guys? Me and my wife just won’t vote for me and it’ll cancel itself out.’”
