So much in common. Hannah Brown may have won season 28 of Dancing With the Stars, but she had a tough journey to the mirrorball — something season 29 competitor Kaitlyn Bristowe can relate to.
“I was such a crazy pants. I was crying all the time. I thought the judges were so mean to me. I did believe they were the hardest to me,” Brown, 26, said during the Tuesday, October 27, episode of Bristowe’s “Off the Vine” podcast. “I took it all so personal. I felt so hurt.”
The Alabama native butted heads with judge Carrie Ann Inaba throughout her time on Dancing, something she now understands more while looking back at her season.
“She’s a woman, so she’s very intuitive, I think, of what my emotions were, and she was right a lot of the time,” the season 15 Bachelorette said. “I was like, ‘You can’t be right! Do not point out what’s happening on national television right now, because I’m going to burst into tears, and I am trying to keep it together.’ That was a lot of it.”
She noted that the judges were giving “affirmations” and helping her, but she “truly couldn’t handle it.”
The season 11 Bachelorette, 35, is going through a similar experience on season 29. On the Monday, October 26, episode, she and partner Artem Chigvintsev received a score of 24 out of 30, landing them second to last place on the leaderboard. Inaba, 52, gave her a 7, which shocked fans and Bristowe.
“It was some tough feedback. I need to not take it personally because my feelings got hurt,” the Canada native revealed via Instagram after the episode.
Her boyfriend, Jason Tartick, also came to her defense following the episode.
“Is the feedback she gives Kaitlyn unbelievable that Kaitlyn can take that feedback and go to the studio and become a better dance? Yes. Was tonight a 7? I don’t think so,” he said via his Instagram Story on Monday night. “This is by far, probably, rock bottom if you look at every single week [for her]. And when you’re at rock bottom, that’s when people hit their next stride. You have to relish it, you have to remember that feeling of being on stage and hearing that feedback and take that every day to your practice and become better and next Monday just crush it. And that’s why rock bottom can be a launchpad.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
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