Two-time Paralympic gold medalist Ezra Frech shared a heartbreaking story of his teenage crush making an insensitive comment about his hand.
“One time I put my arm around some girl that I liked, and she went and told everybody, ‘Ezra put his creepy hand around me,’” Frech, 21, remembered on “On Purpose With Jay Shetty” on Monday, October 19. “[It’s] little things like that when you’re young in middle school that change your perception of yourself in some ways.”
The track-and-field athlete laughed as he compared his vulnerable conversation with the podcast’s host, Jay Shetty, to “therapy,” adding, “I’ve never even said that story ever in my life.”
Frech was born with congenital limb differences, including just one finger on his left hand. While amputating his left leg when he was 2 years old, surgeons transplanted the Los Angeles native’s big toe onto his hand so that he could better grasp and hold objects.
The Dancing With the Stars contestant admitted during Monday’s interview that he was always more insecure about the appearance of his hand than his leg.
“There was points — even [in] middle school, early high school — where I would hide my left hand,” he shared, noting that he would “put it behind my back” or “stand in certain ways” to avoid people noticing his fingers. “I accepted my prosthetic and thought it felt cooler but never understood the importance of accepting my hand as well. It wasn’t, like, one moment. It was a gradual process, and I accepted different parts of my disability at different points.”
Ezra credited his parents, Saw actress Bahar Soomekh and businessman Clayton Frech, for teaching him confidence from a young age.
“I knew the path to walk down. It was about letting go and walking down that path,” he said. “Part of it, I think, just comes with time. Like, in middle school, everybody’s insecure. In early high school, everybody’s insecure. Part of it, honestly, was having successful relationship with women that saw me for who I was beyond, like, some physical difference, and particularly with my left hand, so I had some healing experiences with girls [after] that one incident that definitely helped progress toward a point of acceptance, but I had the framework. It was there.”
Ezra celebrated his mother’s love during DWTS‘ Dedication Night on Tuesday, October 20. Soomekh, 51, joined her son and his pro partner, Daniella Karagach, on the ballroom floor as they performed a moving contemporary dance. The routine — during which Karagach, 33, impressively balanced on the blade of Ezra’s prosthetic — earned the pair the first 10 of season 35, with a total score of 37 out of 40 points.
“The confidence and the security in myself and in the fact that I’m different, it comes from her,” Ezra told Us of his mom after the episode. “To get to share a moment like that with her on a stage that [I’m] now becoming more and more comfortable with … is very special. That was a lot of fun. We’re gonna remember that for the rest of our lives.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
