Fifth Harmony singer Ally Brooke said that beating out James Van Der Beek on “Dancing With the Stars” felt like an “emotional punching bag.”
“I just remember after the show I wanted to quit. I want to give this to James. I don’t want to be here. I was done,” she recalled of the judges decision to keep her and send the “Dawson’s Creek” star packing in 2019.
At the time, Brooke, 27, and her dance partner Sasha Farber were in the bottom two against Van Der Beek and his partner Emma Slater. That same week, Van Der Beek’s wife suffered a pregnancy loss so fans were rooting for the actor,.
“It was such an emotional punching bag for me and then on top of that I got a lot of hate because the judges saved me,” she said on “The Ally Brooke Show” Wednesday.
“It was horrible. And especially the week he had the devastation of losing a baby. Him having the strength to still go on the show and perform and dance,” Brooke continued, adding that the judges’ move didn’t make sense to her. “It was just a bunch of mixed emotions.”
She added of Van Der Beek’s dancing skills, “He was the one to watch during the season because he always performed beautifully.”
Farber, who appeared on Brooke’s show this week, agreed that the situation was sensitive, saying it was “hard to process because we made it and they didn’t.”
“I remember at one point you were like ‘No, no, no. I want to give my position away to James.’ And I was like standing there, my wife is crying, James was crying, you’re crying. I was crying,” Farber said. “You know, it’s crazy. This is just a TV show, it’s just a dance show, but people build such strong bonds.”
Brooke notably asked host Tom Bergeron if she could back out so Van Der Beek could take her place in the final round.
“You don’t understand how much that can destroy someone. That destroyed me and it took me back to the really bad space where I was after ‘X-Factor,'” she said. “My audition aired and I got so much hate there and that tore me apart. And then also, brought back a lot of memories of getting online hate for like, you know, my body or my dancing in Fifth Harmony. I just felt like man, I can’t take this.”
Brooke and Farber ended up placing third in the dance competition.