Charity Lawson discussed the mental health challenges she experienced while participating in Dancing With the Stars Season 32.
“Even though Dancing With the Stars was a fantastic experience, I went through intense struggles with my mental health during that time,” Lawson, 28, shared on the July 29 episode of Cheryl Burke’s “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans” podcast.
Lawson entered the class expecting that the “physical” elements of dance would be the most difficult. She did acknowledge that the experience had a negative “mentally” and “emotionally” impact on her.
The former Bachelorette disclosed that during the 2023 season of the dating show, she received an approach from DWTS. Given the novelty of her relationship with fiancé Dotun Olubeko, Lawson wasn’t sure if she would seize the opportunity, even though she understood it was a “once in a lifetime” occasion.
I was apprehensive before beginning all of this because I wasn’t sure if I would be able to handle [it.] She said, “Dotun was undoubtedly my greatest fan and he said, ‘Yes, go for it, I’ll be here for you every step of the way.'” But it hit me like a ton of bricks because I had no idea. In the third or fourth week, I was unsure.
Lawson battled the same criticism from the judges each week while she was on the show. Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Derek Hough were on the panel, and they pushed Lawson to show more passion in her dances with partner Artem Chigvintsev. Having never performed before, Lawson wasn’t sure exactly how to go about doing that.
“I became obsessed with doing these simple things that I knew how to do for myself. Every week I feel like I’m running out of time and not accomplishing enough; it’s almost like a clock countdown,” she thought to herself. “And I knew I was giving it everything I had—what I was capable of, what the resources I had at the time—but it was so soul-crushing for me to tell myself that and to even have those thoughts in my head that I’m not doing enough.”
In addition to facing harsh judgments from the panel, Lawson also struggled with bullying from DWTS fans. While she was accustomed to online criticism from her time on reality TV, she was shocked by the harsh labels from DWTS viewers, such as “conceited,” “entitled,” and “the biggest bitch on the cast.”
“It was so damaging night after night … It was awful,” she recounted. “I discussed it with Artem, but no one else knew. The pros were unaware, and nobody knew what was happening until I said, ‘Check my comments whenever I post or when something about me and Artem is shared on the Dancing With the Stars page.’”
Lawson had to block and censor her personal social media profile because to the overwhelming negative online comments; however, the official DWTS account remained unfiltered, allowing the hateful remarks to persist.
Lawson revealed that when she chose to talk to 42-year-old Chigvintsev about it at the end of the season, he was “confused” by the response he saw on social media. Lawson stated that they brought the matter up with the executives of the shows, but by then it was “too far gone.” Lawson kept going to Chigvintsev because of the bullying, who “offered as much support as he could.”
“I simply had to hold it in,” she remarked on Monday. “And to be really honest, I reached a point where all I was trying to do was get through the season and survive.”
Lawson eventually qualified for the DWTS finale, where she placed fourth. In the end, the mirrorball was won by Valentin Chmerkovskiy and Xochitl Gomez.
Although Lawson refrained from disclosing her challenges during the show’s run last year, she made the decision to disclose the bullying in an attempt to “advocate” for upcoming competitors and spare them from having to experience something similar.
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