Charity Lawson is revealing the heartbreaking reality of being a contestant on "Dancing with the Stars," months after finishing fourth in the competition.
"While ‘Dancing with the Stars’ was great, I literally went through hell and back with my mental health on that show," Lawson said on the "Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans" podcast hosted by former dancing pro Cheryl Burke, who has voiced her own concerns about the program since leaving the show in 2022.
Lawson, who starred on season 20 of "The Bachelorette" after appearing on Zach Shallcross' season of "The Bachelor," says the criticism and bullying she endured on the dance competition show "hit me like a ton of bricks."
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"I came into the ‘Dancing With the Stars’ fan base, and I was like, ‘This is gonna be a piece of cake,'" she recounted. "Only to be, like almost to the point where it was so much worse than ‘Bachelor’ and ‘Bachelorette,’" she shared. "I was getting death threats for like, existing."
Burke was shocked by Lawson's admission, but Lawson said, "I think to a certain degree it was expected. That's why I say coming off the ‘Bachelorette,’ I was like, ‘Oh I can handle it.’"
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Lawson told Burke that the hits kept coming. "For not performing enough, for being conceited, for being entitled, for being the biggest b--- on the cast. No, it’s crazy. Like I'm telling you this and for anyone that doesn't know I'm saying this too, this is like the first time I'm openly talking about it," she revealed.
"It got to the point where I was like I have to choose to protect my peace and not even give any attention to this. It was so damaging. Night in, night out," she said of the experience.
Lawson took steps to try to improve the situation. She "blocked and filtered" the comments section on social media to avoid reading nasty remarks, but the "Dancing with the Stars" social media pages were another story.
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"I had to tell [partner] Artem [Chigvintsev], I was like, ‘This is unfortunately what we’re dealing with and what we're up against.' If you look in comparison to every other contestant on the season, they don't have this underneath their comments," she said, except for Harry Jowsey, who struggled consistently to execute his dances.
"It was so insane to see, and I didn't understand," Lawson says of the comments. The reality star says she did go to the producers, but "it was too far gone" for them to improve the situation.
"That's why I said it's not really surprising … Someone messaged me and said like the same thing kind of happened to Simone [Biles] when she competed [on season 24]. And I was like, it's just honestly a trend. Which is kind of frustrating," she said. "I'm only speaking out about my experience, how I feel … just being and existing. But also like, the difference that I have and go through this life as a Black woman and being on a reality TV show. It's like, the same things are just not protected."
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"I just had to suppress it and, honestly, it got to the point where I'm just trying to survive … I'm just trying to make it out of the season."
Lawson said the way she was framed on the show also did not help her case. Packages of her during rehearsal week were edited to place an emphasis on scoring.
"It's almost like skewing the viewers to perceive me in this way of like, 'All she cares about is scores … She thinks she's better than everyone.' But I'm like, at the end of the day, I don't think I'm better than anyone, I'm just trying to get to the point where I feel like I should be, or honestly, where my handwork has taken me."
"I felt at times like my confidence and my work ethic was interpreted as - like I think that's where the viewers kind of got the whole idea and concept of, ‘Oh, she is entitled … She has this very b----y, above me attitude.' But I'm like, ‘No, I’m working hard … I don't wanna be worse than where I came in. If that is intimidating to y'all, then I'm sorry, that's a ‘you’ thing, not a ‘me’ thing … You don't have to like me, you don't have to like my dancing but one thing you are, you're going to respect me."
However, overall, Lawson is glad she did the experience, saying Chigvintsev was of great support, as well as her fiancé Dotun Olubeko.
"Doton told me I worked this hard … It would be defeating and so frustrating looking back on it if I knew I just quit or just walked out. And I'd be really upset with myself," she said. "I'm grateful that I stuck it out."
