Why did Chrishell Stause say “yes” to ‘Dancing with the Stars’?
Season 29 of Dancing with the Stars is officially underway, now that the celebrity cast has been announced. Dancing with the Stars has been a beloved dance competition show for American audiences for so many years, and even after all this time, the excitement for the lineup announcement hasn’t faded. Fans who were eagerly looking forward to the lineup were not disappointed.
Celebrities who will showcase their dancing skills include Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean, Carole Baskin with her super-controversial Tiger King legacy, Selling Sunset‘s real estate brilliance Chrishell Stause, former Bachelorette Kaitlyn Bristowe, and former NFL player Vernon Davis.
The variety & diversity of the fields these celebrities hail from are a sheer delight. We also have Jesse Metcalfe, Monica Aldama, Anne Heche, Skai Jackson, Justina Machado, Jeannie Mai, Grammy Award-winning rapper Nelly, Catfish host Nev Schulman, NBA superstar Charles Oakley, and Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir.
Chrishell Stause said yes
Of the many intriguing names on the list, one stands out: Chrishell Stause. She’s already an established reality star with her gig in Selling Sunsets, where real estate agents fight over clients & properties in the cut-throat world of Los Angeles real estate. Lately, she’s been making headlines over her split from actor Justin Hartley of This is Us fame.
Her separation from Hartley wasn’t a particularly smooth one, as the latter filed for divorce & chose to inform her through a text message. The past year has been particularly hard on the 39-year-old actor who was previously seen in major roles in shows like Days of Our Lives & All My Children. She lost her father in 2019, followed shortly by the passing away of her mother by cancer.
Her decision to join the dance competition seems to be the result of her coping mechanism for all this loss. Stause was quoted as saying, “I feel equal parts excited and completely terrified. It has been a crazy journey and I would have never imagined this is where I would end up.”
What’ve we got to lose?
Having her life shatter was hard as it is, but going through all the struggles on television has been particularly difficult. When Hartley had filed for divorce, citing – as they do – irreconcilable differences, Stause was completely blindsided. On top of it, she was aggrieved at the way the news broke, “I found out because he texted me that we were filed. Forty-five minutes later, the world knew.”
With Dancing with the Stars, she’s looking forward to challenging herself, because she believes she’s got nothing to lose. We understand that once you go through that kind of humiliation in the public eye, there’s little that can faze you anymore.
She seems to echo this very sentiment, “Listen, I’ve already fallen flat on my face in front of America already, so I really got that out of the way. I don’t have anything else to lose, so it’s only going up from here!” As she begins a new chapter in her life, taking on a fresh work assignment that challenges her & most importantly, keeps her mind productively occupied is a relatively healthy coping mechanism as they go.
Moving on & letting go
In the aftermath of the divorce, she opines that she’s in a good place, considering that she’s got nothing more to say. She’s redirecting her life to the next chapter & ensuring that it’s an exciting one.
In her own words, she’s looking at the dance competition as “an experience I can kinda throw myself into and just kind of learn a new skill and have fun at the same time. I have no dance experience, so it’s going to at least be a laugh for all of us.” She seems to be genuinely looking forward to everything that this experience will entail.
She shared about her dance partner, “We instantly just hit it off and I love him. He’s great! I feel like I got the best partner I could get because he’s a really great teacher, he’s easy on the eyes and I feel like I have my own personal Dirty Dancing.” And we love that for her.
