Robert Irwin is still reeling after pal Danielle Fishel left the ballroom on Dancing With the Stars season 34.
“Absolutely gutted. Absolutely devastated,” Irwin, 21, exclusively told Us Weekly of his reaction to Fishel’s exit after the Tuesday, November 4, episode. “Amongst the contestants here on Dancing With the Stars, she’s the person I think I’ve grown closest to. I consider her one of my best friends in this experience, and she is the most authentic, genuine, incredible human being that leads with this sense of positivity.”
He continued, “She walks in the room and everybody is just lifted up. And the fact that she won’t be in the ballroom anymore, I am gutted, but I think she has pumped out so much positivity through our TV screens. I mean, she should be so proud of herself.”
Irwin’s partner, pro Witney Carson, echoed his sentiments and gushed that Fishel, 44, is “such a class act.”
“Every time I go into makeup or hair, her genuine smile just makes me feel better. She’s got this warmth of mother protectiveness, and it was such a pleasure getting to know her,” Carson, 32, told Us. “We’re going to miss her so much.”
Fishel and partner Pasha Pashkov were ultimately sent home on Tuesday after performing a contemporary routine to Aerosmith’s “Dream On” and receiving a score of 34 out of 40 from judges Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough and guest judge Flavor Flav. The pair were also part of Team Chicago, earning the season’s first perfect score — but Fishel and Pashkov were still eliminated.
Irwin and Carson, meanwhile, were safe from leaving the competition and are gearing up for next week’s 20th birthday celebration episode. While the pair have yet to reveal their style of dance, Carson teased it’s “going to be completely different” than what they have performed so far.
“We’re going to have to start again from the bottom and work our way up. And I think that in itself is already a challenge, but I think now, like Carrie Ann said, it’s a good time to have this momentum, so we’re going to hopefully just take that momentum and keep working and keep pushing and do more challenging things and push you a little bit,” Carson told Us, referring to the judges’ feedback on Tuesday. “And I think that always pays off in the end.”
Irwin, meanwhile, shared that the number is going to be “really emotional.”
“It’s one that I think is hopefully going to resonate with a lot of people,” he said. “It’s a very personal story. It’s going to be a hard story to tell, but a story that I think is impossible to tell any other way. I mean, to be able to fully and completely tell this story of loss and legacy. I don’t want to give away too much, but this choreography I think is going to be a great representation of how to navigate that. It’ll be really beautiful.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET, with new episodes streaming the next day on Hulu.
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