Whitney Leavitt had a hard time leaving “Dancing With the Stars” behind. In fact, the recently-eliminated “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” star compared her exit to a breakup in a tearful video shared on Instagram.
“I’m just gonna speak from the heart, share what I’m feeling. I share the good, I share the bad, I share the ugly, so I’m just gonna keep doing that,” the influencer said through tears. “When you’re casted on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ you are seeing these people [for] hours every single day. Then, it just stops. It genuinely feels like a breakup. It feels like I’m, like, going through withdrawals right now.”
The 32-year-old social media star rose to fame on Hulu’s hit reality program “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” a show about the Mormon, Utah-based influencers that make up “MomTok.” After the show had a massive rise in popularity, “Dancing with the Stars” invited both Leavitt and co-star Jen Affleck on for its 34th season.
Leavitt was paired with professional dancer Mark Ballas for the show, with the pair frequently achieving high scores throughout the season. However, after making it all the way to the semi-finals,, Leavitt and Ballas were eliminated during Prince Night (where the contestants danced to songs by the iconic musician).
“Today just felt so weird. It felt so weird not going into the studio and meeting with Mark and learning a dance. Like, it just, it just felt weird, and it made me sad,” Leavitt said in the social media video. “You grow real friendships and, like, real connections with these people, and you learn so much about yourself, and people uplift you constantly, and you challenge yourself. Like, you just feel so loved.” You can watch her full video below.
Leavitt used the video to share her key takeaways from the experience, including surrounding yourself “with people who believe in you, who want to see you achieve your delusional dreams.” It was at this point that she shouted out Ballas’ friendship — and that the tears really started flowing.
“Of course I loved performing on that stage, I loved wearing the costumes and dancing and expressing myself. Like, I loved every bit of it,” Leavitt said. “But the one thing that I loved the most that I wasn’t expecting was getting a lifelong friend. A friend who makes fart noises every single day.”
“I love you guys,” Leavitt concluded. “And I f–king love this show.”
“Dancing With the Stars” airs live on Tuesdays on ABC and streams on Disney+ in local time zones and the next day on Hulu.
