Charity Lawson revealed the true reason behind her unfiltered facial expressions on Dancing With the Stars.
Charity, 30, set the record straight on her reactions to her Dancing With the Stars scores during a Wednesday, April 15, episode of the “What’s the Reality?” podcast.
“Obviously, we would do interviews and they would ask, ‘So what was your score this week?’” she recalled of her stint on season 32 of DWTS, where she competed with pro Artem Chigvintsev. “And I would be like, ‘Oh, I got a 7, not my best, but I ideally would wanna get a 9. That’s what I’m shooting for. That’s what I’m aiming for.’”
The former Bachelorette went on to say that when fans would watch her package ahead of the next week, it seemed like she was only focused on her scores. Charity remembered seeing comments that painted her as “cocky” and “conceited.”
“I’m stressed, I’m scared, I’m anxious,” Charity said, defending herself. “There’s more than just one emotion of [aggression]. I’m up on stage getting my scores from Julianne [Hough], and it’s like, ‘Ugh. She has an attitude problem. She’s not smiling.’ And if I am smiling, [then it’s], ‘She thinks she’s better than everyone.’”
“You’re damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t,” she added. “When I say I’ve never really been so merged between those two things in my life, I was like, ‘How do I maneuver this?’”
Charity and Artem, 43, ended up placing fourth overall in the competition.
Elsewhere in the interview, Charity said she was “so excited” to go on DWTS but said the competition took “over [her] life.”
“Going into it, I was so excited. Did not realize how rigorous the training is,” she explained. “It is possibly one of the hardest things that I’ve ever done for my body, mentally and also emotionally. The show days are really fun … but on the flip side, it’s TV. A story always has to get told.”
Following her 2023 turn on DWTS season, Charity opened up about the experience via Instagram.
“What an experience like no other,” she captioned a number of photos fromthroughout her season. “Possibly the hardest thing I have ever done and I thank myself for going on this adventure everyday. I discovered so much about myself. I rose to the occasion week after week, despite the adversity I faced.”
Charity continued, “I got to experience finals with the best teacher and dancer @theartemc who has truly pushed me from day 1 to reach my potential because HE saw the best in me.”
