December 18, 2023 • 52 mins
She got her heart broken on national TV on The Bachelor, then bounced back by tearing up the dance floor on seasons 8 and 15 of DWTS, winning the all-stars competition!
Melissa Rycroft joins Cherly to talk about her time on the hardwood, including why she said no to The Bachelorette but yes to DWTS, her relationship with Tony Dovolani, and butting heads with Gilles Marini.
Plus, Melissa answers fan and rapid-fire questions!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Sex Lies and Spray Tans with Me Cheryl
Burke and iHeartRadio Podcast. Welcome back to Sex Lies and
Spray Tans. I'm just gonna jump right in as I
want to have just as much time with my next
guest as possible. We haven't spoken in a few years,
but no matter how long it's been, I still consider
this person a good friend and a part of my
(00:21):
dancing family for life. You know you know her from
the Bachelor. She also is a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader. She
was at Least and she did two seasons of Dancing
with the Stars Season eight and All Stars. Yeah, let's
just get started because I can't wait to catch up.
It's been a few years for sure, so please welcome
my next guest, Melissa Ryecroft Strickland to the show. Hey stranger,
(00:47):
how are you? My gosh? Welcome to Sex Lies and
Spray Tans. I'm doing great? How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I mean, I'm good. It's been a hot minute since
I've gotten to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
But wait, when was the last time? Was it when
we did our threeesum trio?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Wait to jump on in there, Stebee? Yeah, you know
what it might be. It might have been the trio.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, I think it was. Actually I think it was.
And you know what, I will never forget it because
we'll get there. We'll get there. We'll get there, because
I really want to know how you really felt every
time Jan Pablo would do that flip.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Oh jeez, I can't, I can't.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Okay, let's rewind a little bit here. Hey, So I
have to say that, like, out of everybody on the show,
and I've been, I was on for twenty six seasons, obviously, obviously,
so obvious, I have to say that I connected to
you like more than most because you're so grounded, You're
so authentic, and you never change, like you are who
(01:52):
you are and I'm and I totally respect like your authenticity,
your vulnerability and everything. Like me and you would have
some heart to heart about how crazy this process was,
and I don't know, it's just that, you know, I
feel obviously we all have our own lives and we
all evolve, but I feel like we're just going to
(02:12):
pick up where we left off.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So yeah, I know, love that, don't you when you
meet people like that?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, no, I totally agree. I think you and I
had something special. I ended up at many a random
places going out with you back in the day.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Have you met sober Cheryl yet?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I have met sober Cheryl. Yes, weren't you okay, Pablo?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Oh wait no, wait was I sober?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I think so?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Oh I just started my sobriety. It's been five and
a half years.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah, congrats by the way.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Thank you, thank you so much. So okay, So for
those of you of my listeners basically that don't watch
The Bachelor, because I have to, like straight up be honest,
you're like I have, I've never seen an episode of
The Bachelor, but watch it like.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Way back in the day when it was first coming out.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
No, because I was always on Dancing with the Stars
or on so it's like at the end, you know
how that schedule is.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I guess it was not at the same time, wasn't that? Yeah? Okay?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
What so I guess to give us a quick cliff
note version of like what happened? And you know, obviously
I have questions that we'll get into Dancing on Stars.
I would love to talk about, you know, your family
and all of it.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So, okay, cliffs notes version of my time on The Bachelor. Yes,
so my season, I think it was season eight, so
it was still a pretty new franchise. Way back then.
I was twenty two when I went on it, which
now I just hit I know, right, you're shaking your head.
I'm like twenty two and I was like, I can't
(03:40):
find love. I'll never get married. Yeah. And my bachelor
his name was Jason, and long story short, I thought
we had fallen in love, got engaged, and then we
filmed the after the Final Rose about two weeks after
we finished filming, where heke up with me because he
(04:01):
had not lost contact with the other runner up, Mollie.
And then a week later, Dinakats called me to join
Dancing the Stars.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
And my listeners know, but you know Dina Cats because
we always reference her. He's the best. You know it
was Was it a heartbreak for you? Did you fall
in love? Or was it like TV love? Right?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
You know, hindsight one hundred percent is twenty twenty. I
will be completely honest that in the moment, I really
thought I was in love with this guy. I really
thought this is where I'm supposed to be. I was
not in a good place at home, like I had
just quit Cowboys cheerleaders for Ty who's now my husband,
and he broke up with me a week after that.
I did not like the job I was in. I
(04:42):
was just kind of in one of those ruts, you
know what I mean. I found myself in a place
of like, I don't know what to do with my life.
I don't know what's going on, I don't know where
I'm supposed to be. And a friend nominated me for
the Bachelor. So when I got the huge packet anybody
that's seen it's like an eighty page packet that came
in the mail. I filled it out and I was like,
all right, we'll see where this goes. Why not? And
(05:04):
it's like once I got there, something clicked or I
went this is where I'm supposed to be. And so
there's this guy giving me all this attention that I
really craved at that time. You know, I was pretty
insecure going into the Bachelor. I was pretty immature. I
was very young, and I kind of latched onto it,
which is why when I was crying in the Lumino,
(05:26):
I was heartbroken. Yeah, you know, now, looking back, I
was not in love with him, right, you were in lust?
In lust probably? Yes, I loved I loved that he
liked me and gave me that validation. How about that?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
And then also like liked asking the stars. I'm pretty
sure you're consumed within that environment, like there's really not
much outside influence. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Oh, it's not that there's not much. There's none. There's
no phones. That year, Barack Obama was nominated as president
elected as president, and we had idea like we had
producers come in the next morning to tell us who
was the new president. We had nothing but each other.
So it's a total mind game, Cheryl. It is a
total You have your production assistant with your little galpal
(06:14):
is what they call it. That's with you twenty four
hours a day, just feeding things into you, like, oh,
he was talking about you last night on a day
was so and so, But he came back and said
he liked you to where you're like, oh man, So
it's a mind trip for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Well yeah, and by the way, that's probably why it's
such great television and still going on to this day,
one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I mean, they just get crazier, crazy, easier.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
So did you had you seen Dancing with the Stars
but before ever.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Or so not Dancing with the Stars. I remember so
when Dina called me. It's hard to the timeline's hard
to explain because the Bachelor filmed and it didn't air
for three months after that, right, So Dina technically didn't
call me until three months after Bachelor had ended and
the after the Final rows had aired on TV.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
So I know January twenty nineteen. I did a little
bit of research then, and then it looks like in
like two weeks you all of a sudden met tie.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well that's what it looked like on TV. So were
my season of Bachelor ended filming before Thanksgiving, so that's
when we were done. The after the final rowse filmed
December third or fifth. I remember those dates.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
So it was not live.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
No, it was not live at all, especially that one,
because everybody kind of knew what was going to happen,
so there was no audience for that, which I didn't.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Now you didn't know at all.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I had no idea, I said. I mean, I had
no idea that he was about to break up with
me and you. No, I had no idea. We were
talking and he had he beforehand. I was like, is
there anything that I need to know? Walking into this,
Like I assume things were not great. I'm gonna be
real honest, Like once we didn't see each other long
distance with he and I. I'm a pretty outgoing and
(08:05):
he's not. And I noticed that pretty early on when
all you have his phone calls. But I was like,
maybe we just put on a united front for the camera. Right.
They had told me they were bumping up the filming
of this after the final rows for Bachelorette production, which
I believed, which now to come back was not true.
He just wanted to get with Molly and so production
(08:25):
bumped everything up before that. So no, I walked in
going He's told me we're fine. I wore the stupid
ring on my finger.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Did you guys see each other? Don't you guys like
shack up in a secret like hiding girl?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
We weren't even together long enough?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Oh got it? O? No, we did not. We didn't
do all and you had no inkling like that. Maybe
this guy's just not into me.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Oh listen. I think I knew at that point like
this is not it's not happening. But again, in my mind,
I'm like, but we this was a show we made.
We got to kind of pretend like we're still great
and maybe we'll talk about the problems that we're having.
I did not expect the I'm still in love with
Mollie and I've been talking with Molly and I haven't
(09:09):
and I was like, oh god, well now I just
feel really stupid. And again you talk about a mind
trip with that, I went two months of my life
not being able to tell anybody that one I thought
I had fallen in love, that I had gotten engaged,
and then that I had gotten dumped. And I'm holding
all of that in because you know, you signed the
contract and I was terrified to break that contract. And
(09:32):
so the emotional roller coaster going through my mind those
two months before things aired, and I was like, I
was embarrassed. I mean, my parents are still the only
parents that have never been on the show. They were
so against it, did not want to be a part
of it. And I just felt like, oh god, now, yes,
yes to go Bob and Mary.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yes, Bob and Mary.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Shout out to them, but yeah, I was really embarrassed
with how it was going to air and everybody was
going to hate me, and I don't no, I just
it gave me like this severe anxiety.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
And your producer, You're like, what you're like my bestie,
well not only that.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I'm in the limo crying, going what the heck just happened?
And she goes, hey, great news. Now you get to
be the Bachelorette. And I was like, are you what?
Like that's my condemnation price for going through all of
this is that I get to be I don't want
to be the Bachelor.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Wait, so were you the bachelorette?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
No? They they tried very hard. I'm gonna be honest.
They sent they I got gifts. I got enticed with
a lot of money, but I ultimately was like absolutely not.
I don't trust you people. I don't want anything to do.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
With good for you that. So, yeah, well kind of gifts.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
They were good. Let me just say the Bachelor.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
And that was when Mike Swiss was running the show.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Correct, Slice was the head of the Yeah he's a captain.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
And Chris Harrison and all of it, like the OGG exactly. Yeah, okay,
So then Dina Katz did you have did you know
who she was?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
No? I had no idea. At this point, I'm still
dodging ABC's calls because I was like, I have said, oh,
I want nothing to do with y'all. I'm back in
my cubicle. Tye and I had reconnected again.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
How did that reconnection happen?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You know what's funny? So I got I got engaged
in New Zealand. And when I got back in the
country and they gave me my phone back, you're laughing,
but it's true. When I got my phone back and
I turned it on, I had all these messages from
Tie and I was like, what the heck of course
now you call because you don't have me And my
phone just started ringing and it was Tie trying to
(11:39):
get a hold of me. And I had developed on
The Bachelor. If I can credit the Bachelor with anything,
take the career stuff away, but like personally, the confidence
that I gained of I know what I'm worth, I
know what I want, and I know what I'm not
going to put up with kind of stuff, everything that
I had gone through, and it made me so angry
(12:00):
at high and I was like, how dare you call
me knowing I'm happy and I'm in another situation?
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Wait, why did he dump you the first good time?
Or before this?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Twenty five?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
One and't ready? I mean, and he had always said
he was like, you're the one, I'm just not ready
for you now, which I never understood as a twenty
two year old. I was like, I don't get it, though,
I'm right here and you're willing to let me go.
And now I'm so much more mature and older, and
I'm like, I get it, I totally and I don't
want kids to be in those relationships at twenty two
and twenty five. Yeah, but he was. He was just
(12:36):
being honest, and I can't you know, you can't be
mad about that. But what happened is once I did leave,
he had the oh crap, maybe I did let her go.
And the longer I was gone, he was like, oh god,
I think something may have happened with somebody else.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Right, And then you developed your own self worth and
self confidence as a woman, and he had a network
chasing after you, wanting you to be the bachelorette. And
then dakast is like, come on this ballroom dance show
exactly boom, what a great like you know, turnaround. You know,
in a way, it's like the fact that first of all,
that you had the confidence to say no to being
(13:10):
the bachelorette is the kudos to you, because you know,
obviously it could have been tempting with all the gifts
and money they were throwing at you, and plus you
were also at your most vulnerable.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Right right. I was also upset though, Like I this
was before reality TV kind of became what it is now.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
There's not social media. We didn't go on the show
to become famous. Nobody became famous after you or a
bat on the Bachelor season, right.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Because you were one of the first bachelorettes other than
Trista Sutter obviously, but then it was you. There was
no other one, Yes, And when I talked to.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Dina, she was like, the only reason I called you
is because of that. After the final rows, you know
when it's kind of like they built the storyline where
everybody wanted you all to be together, and then they
saw the heartbreak and it just so happens that Nancy
O'Dell had gotten hurt the day.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Oh my god, that was it.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
It was the day, yes, the day that my after
the Final Rose aired, she had gotten hurt and Dina
jumped out. I was near within what two days and
I had three days to practice with Tony, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Only three days during Oh my god, mm hmmm that's insanity.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
But no, I had never seen Dancing with the Stars.
And Dina called me, and I originally said no. I
was like, I hate ABC, I hate you all your
horrible people. And then I called Tie because again we're
dating at this point, and he goes, well, how much
money is it? And I went, ooh, I didn't ask.
So I called back, you didn't ask. Dina told me
what the opening week amount was and I was like,
(14:41):
that's four years of my salary sitting in my cubicle.
And I went, I can do a week. I could
go out for a week and dance and embarrass myself.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Wait, you thought, okay, wait, hold on, So was it
more money than what they were going to offer you
to be the best road? No, it was not.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Here you'll know this number. My The what they offered
for Bachelorette was what you make the finale week of
dancing with it.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Okay, yeah, okay, so that but but but was there
any chance because in your contract would you would they
have to have approved you going on dancing.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yes, And this was the call that I got. It
was a producer from Bachelor who called me and said,
we're going to connect you with someone from Dancing with
the Stars. Their whole thing at Bachelor was that they
wanted the audience to see that I was okay. And
if I'm not going to do Bachelorette, what other avenue
can they do to show the world that, look, it's
not a horrible franchise, We're not bad people. She's okay,
(15:37):
which is why they then allowed me to do Dancing
with the.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Sid is right right, save their own ass.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yes, I'm looking back, what they've done it again? Probably not,
but I think I think they would have. Why not,
because you're right they there needs to be a story,
like you can't just ball off the you know, ran
it the way that it ended. I think in their
minds they just saw my redemption story would be I'd
be the Bachelorette, everybody would see me fall in love
and the world goes as it should be. But because
(16:04):
I didn't do Bachelorette, they found themselves in a position
of like, well, holy heck, what are we supposed to
do to let everybody know that everything is still okay?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And do you think you would have done it? If
you and I? I wouldn't have gotten back together.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Bachelorette, No, I know for sure, because I kept telling them.
I was like, you threw me under the bus, why
would you not do it again if I was the lead?
And they kept saying, we protect our leads. But when
the after the final rows came out, I said, but
you didn't, because you just threw Jason under the bus
too and made him look like an idiot, which I
have a lot of sympathy for the position he was
(16:38):
in at that time too, now twenty years later, but
I'm like, you don't protect your lead. You make a show,
and I understand that, and I'm not saying anything bad
about but I understand what you're doing, and I'm not
going to put myself back in that situation.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Right good for you look like an idiot. And also,
don't say that you're protecting your lead when you're just
not so right.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
But that's exactly what they told me, like we protect
our lead, and I'm like, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Okay, So moving on to Dancing to These Stars, you
didn't request Tony because you had no idea. Okay, So
this was the season when I danced with Gille Marine,
I remember, and we all made the finals. So we're
going to get there because I don't think my listeners
have heard like the whole ABC jet experience yet because
(17:23):
I don't think I have I interviewed a finalist yet.
I don't know. I don't think the question hasn't been asked,
but I know that they're curious. You also have tons
of fan questions and we have to play rapid fire
because it's a thing. But we're not there yet. Okay,
(17:44):
So how was your So you had three days? What
was your first dance? I'm assuming chatcha.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
No, it was a waltz. Oh really, And I'm gonna
say that my dress was hideous because I guess it
was made Nancy And they told me Nancy was very
modest and one to be like covered up, and they
didn't have enough time to create also like very tall. Oh,
they had to alter it, but they couldn't make a
new dress. So I was in Nancy Odell's dress. They
(18:10):
just they she is I think five inches taller than me.
But I was like, I feel like I'm a nun.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So this was before they made rules for training, so
like we used to be able to rehearse as many
hours as we wanted prior to the live show, and
then all these people started getting injured, like Jewel like
Nancy O'Dell and that was that was when they made
the rule of four hours maximum basically up until like
mid season. Yeah, because it is a shock obviously to
(18:37):
your body and also mentally in all of it. But
like that is crazy. I've always said they need to
do a season of all the people that got injured
and so they have another chance at this, you know
what I mean. Like, by the way, Jewel, that's a
huge booking. I'll take it, right, But you know, at
the end of the day, look, everything's meant to be obviously,
(18:58):
Now when you had dance ex do you come from
the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders you kind of Also I heard
an interview you did recently where you said that you
had weigh ends.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Oh on the Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yeah, is that real?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
They don't do that anymore. We have to think good times, right,
I mean this was I was a cheerleader back in
two thousand and five, so I mean it was a
different time, you know. But yes, we had daily weighans
and you had to be within a specific weight from
your tryout weight, and we were constantly on you know,
(19:33):
felt the pressure of there was weight warning or weight watch.
There was weight warning and there was weight probation. What yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Wait, what's weight watch? What's what?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
What much means you've gone above the five pounds that
you tried out with, and weight warning means that if
you gain anymore, you're out of uniform, and weight probation
as you're out of uniform. Yeah, I mean it sounds awful,
and I hate saying that because I love the awful.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
It doesn't sound awful, but.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
A this was twenty years ago when kind of it
was kind of the culture. So none of us protest.
And I'll be honest, there's a there were a lot
of diet pills. There are a lot of I'm sure
water pills. We would when you knew there was a
way in, like for six hours before, you wouldn't eat
or drink anything because you didn't want to.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Of course, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Tip this swing.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
What if you're on your period.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, well you can't do anything about that. I mean, no,
you can't. It was it was Yeah, I think I
think at that time there were a lot of us
that kind of left with body issues. I wasn't even
aware of what my body looked like until I was
a Cowboys cheerleader, and then I was like oh man, okay,
and now I've and not only that, I was a
cheerleader when I was twenty two twenty three. Your body's changing,
(20:41):
you know what I mean? Of course, if anybody looks
at what I looked like my first year to what
I looked like my second year, my body is very
different because I was just suring woman, still growing, and
you know, I don't have a lot of curves, but
my curves were coming that hadn't been there before. So
it definitely messes with you mentally, like why am I
am my five pounds heavier than I was a couple
(21:02):
of weeks ago And I'm not doing anything different.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
But do you suffer from body dysmorphia?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I think I did for a little bit.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, got it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I mean I had always been naturally smaller, but anytime
that weight came on, I was like, whoa freaking out
a little bit again because I had I didn't grow
up with social media. I think it's a blessing share
all the way you and I grew up. I didn't
know what other people looked like other than my friends,
and so he all kind of grew up quote unquote
confident that I'm happy. And then you see other people
(21:32):
around you, and you're compared to other people around you,
and then you feel the pressure of oh, okay, all right,
now I have to keep this and it's not as
a woman, it's not ea.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
And you're in front of mirrors, like I always say,
like when I was a dance like when I was
a competitor, that is, I didn't have actual way in,
but I did in a way like my dance coach,
you know. I remember he put me on this thing
called the Hollywood diet, which was just literally like at
the yeah, yeah, no, it just came in a ball.
And I remember we were driving to Blackpool, that big
competition in England, and I was driving and I had
(22:05):
to pee every two seconds because I was just like,
this is just the only thing that I was on
and did it work absolutely. But like I've noticed too,
like even when we were for example, I'll never forget,
like I was looking at obviously old pictures of us
recently and I definitely still suffer from body dysmorphius. So
I'm working through it, you know. I think. Look, I
(22:28):
think that being in front of the mirror since I
was a little girl, the comparison is almost gonna have
it's just natural, like you can't avoid it, especially when
when dancing, whether it was ballet at my time, but
I also developed at nine years old. I looked the same.
My body looks the same as it did when I
was nine, And it's it's crazy because also on Dancing
(22:49):
with the Stars, you know, like you see everything and
we're on TV, and you know, any back roll that
I would have and then I will never forget our
trio when we had our fitting and then looking at
pictures now I was so skinny, and I was giving Daniella,
the head of wardrobe, shout out to her so much
crap about because like my insecurity is obviously any anyone
(23:11):
who's insecure will just put it out on somebody. And
I was so testy and I was like, do I
look fat compared to Melissa? And I was just like
hounding her and it's so my thigh is as big
as my calf now, you know, it's like and it
was just crazy, how sick? Yeah, I was really, And
it's sad.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
It is sad. But if anybody looks at the world
again that you grew up in and you're constantly being
compared to other people, you know, I mean, I don't know.
I don't know if I would have survived in a
world like that, but that's what you were in and
not until I was twenty two, though I didn't grow
up with it. Oh so I had I had a
(23:51):
little bit of maturity. But at twenty two, I think
we can all look back and be like, you still
don't know anything? Like you still you know. I'm just
now getting to a point where I'm like, I am
I'm forty, right, I'm flipping forty year.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I'm about to be forty. Actually, I just can't wait.
Thirty nine is just like okay, it's like almost there.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yes, but I will tell you what comes with forty
is I'm like, I don't look the way that I
did back on dancing with a stir or back when
I can gorgeous. But I'm fine. I'm like, I'm fine
because I'm healthy. I think I'm the healthiest I've been
in my entire life. I'm working out more, I eat
insanely well just because i want to, because it makes
me feel good, you know. So I'm like, I feel
(24:31):
like I am the healthiest i've been. I'm not the
skinniest i've been, and I don't think that you would
ever look at me and be like, she looks like
she's the healthiest, but like I feel the best that
I have.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
That's how that matters.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah, if maybe that just comes at a forty confidence
of like, it is what it is, and I'm not
going to put myself to You know.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Did you ever feel the pressure on dancing, or on
Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, or even on the Bachelorette to stay
at a certain weight? Maybe not Dallas Cowboy trailers. Obviously
you had the pressure.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Her boys, and not even Bachelorette. To be honest, I
didn't feel any pressure. I think I started to feel
it on dancing because that was tabloid time, right, Like, no,
all the tabloids were really big, and they focused a
lot on my body, and oh my god, how fit
she is? How I did all these fit ads and
how beautiful?
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Do you know what I'm saying? Six pack? Yes?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Right, yeah, Look how much weight she's lost throughout this process,
which does come naturally. But once it ends, I'm like,
well now I have to stay like, I have to
keep up this body because it's been you know, she's
kind of the fit ambassador for ABC, so I did
have to feel it then, and that's probably when those
body issues that came right when I was twenty two
(25:44):
twenty three, sunk in of like how do I keep
this up? Even though it's not necessarily natural?
Speaker 1 (25:50):
What could you do?
Speaker 2 (25:51):
You know if I maybe just don't eat as much
or you know, you know, and.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Then you had so ava was I mean I first
of all, I know, like I'll never forget. Was it
social media around then? Yes?
Speaker 2 (26:03):
No, our first season Advancing with the Stars, there was not.
I mean there was, but nobody really knew of social media,
like there was Twitter. I think maybe that just had crime, right,
I'll never forget. Like did you have like a lot
of paparazzi.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
And like like random pictures that of your of yourself taken,
like if you're on a beach or whatever.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Well, yes, and no, I mean I'm in Dallas. We've
always lived in Dallas, so there's not a lot of
paparazzi here. Now when we would go to La there
would be, yeah, But other than that, I didn't have
paparazzi like sneaking in my bushes and stuff because when
I wasn't working, I'm home in Dallas just doing my
normal thing.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah, that's smart. Okay, So that's interesting, by the way,
And you know what I have to say, even if
I'm not on the show, and after retiring, I definitely
still it's still it's so it's like my brain is
so wired to go back to that way of thinking,
and it does take a lot of inner work and
self love and not being defined by the outside world,
(27:01):
whether that's your job or what you see. So you
think you see yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure it
helps with your kids and like, how do you I guess,
you know, be a mentor to your especially your daughter
like Ava, you know, just to be able to set
an example. I feel like it's even worse now, I
would say, within the gen zs than it's ever been.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah. No, it's a struggle daily with Ava. She's she's
gonna be thirteen and I'm gonna have a thirteen year
old teen month. I know, I know I can't do it.
But social media is her life. Filters are her life,
likes in this are her life, and it's a world
that we didn't grow up in and so I'm navigating
(27:46):
it with her and in the things that I talked
to with her, it's just she just doesn't have the
mental capacity sometimes when I say things to her about
what matters and what doesn't matter, because right now all
that matters to her it's friends and likes and social
and this I mean and I remember that time. And
so I'm learning with her of how to let you
(28:08):
do that, because that is normal. But you are doing
it on a scale that none of us at my
age are. I don't even I don't even know how
to parent you with social media.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
And the pressure. Does she have rules? Like does she
have rules on when she can use it?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Or oh, well, she first of all doesn't have her
own social media. She's his mine, so like my good talk,
it's my snapchat, so that I'm like, you can post it,
but it's my account. I can see who's on it.
But I've noticed, like she loves the filters that make
her lips big and her nose really narrow and all
of that, and I'm like, no, babe, you're so beautiful
the way you are. You're so beautiful. And that's just
(28:49):
the struggle I think we're all going to have of
you are competing with filters and people with money and
plastic surgery and unrealistic expectations that totally have growing up
that she is getting at twelve years old.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
And so does she want to dance that? Like if
you if let's say, let's say she does.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, that's all right. Well she wants to.
She literally wants to follow it. She's like, I want
to be a Dallas Cowboys shoulder and then I'm going
to be on Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I'm like, oh, and so what do you? But are
you going to just let her, you know, spread her
wings and fly or.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
If that's if that's your avenue, that's your avenue. I
hate that the bar has been set really high for
her in something that she loves, because only failure can
come if she doesn't accomplish that.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
And I hate that for her, you know, but lessons
from failure. There's no success without it.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Right, But as a parent, you don't you don it
on like, I.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Don't know how that feels.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
I don't want to see you try for something that
you've been wanting ten years and not getting. I'm not
saying she won't, I just I you know, I look
back at my resume going I don't know how the
heck guy did it? I feel like it's like this
fairy tale. It was just luck and stuff written in
the sod.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Your parents push you to do anything.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
My mom put me in dance it too. She grew
up in a household where she was not allowed to dance,
and so she was sure to have a dancer. But
what it did was it burnt me out. You know.
By thirteen fourteen, I was like, I'm done, mom, I
don't want to do this, which is you know, I
didn't dance for a while and come dancing with the stars.
I felt rusty. But when I look back, I'm like,
I really kind of looked like I knew what I
(30:26):
was doing. But yeah, no, I was pushed into it
for sure. I didn't do anything else other than the dance.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Got it, Got it. So you had a dance mom.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I had a dance mom that didn't want to admit
she was a dancing.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
By the way, I have the same exact story. I
always say, I covered the original dance mom. I love
you mom. She listened.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I love Mary too. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Okay, So what was your partnership like with Tony.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
First time around? Total? I would say brother sister drow
each other nuts. I've been I vented to you a
lot where I was like, oh my god, I don't
know how it didn't. He would always call me his
little brat, like we just bumped heads because I didn't
understand the process, right, I'm coming from my cubicle experience
(31:14):
on The Bachelor, which you can't even say is real
reality TV. And Tony, I mean, can you say Tony
was one of the most serious instructors that y'all had,
if not the most.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
I mean I would say he was the most experienced,
and he was the most experienced and most formal instructor.
I will say, like definitely, and and I love that
because I love old school. Like when I see these
kids on Dancing with the Stars come into rehearsal with sneakers,
I'm like, first of all, that is not profess I
get so upset about it. And I'm like, how dare
you let your celebrity rehearse in short ill and sneakers?
(31:50):
Like how these people cobad kids put a Latin skirt
on some heels and put a smile on your face
for God's sake.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
That's the way to describe. So Tony was. He was professional,
and he was there to do it, and he was
there absolutely, and my brain just didn't work that way.
I was like, I need breaks, and I need time
off and I.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Need can we have lunch exactly? Now.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
We always worked really well together, We were a great partnership.
But our first season, and I think he would agree,
we definitely butted heads a lot. We would come into
practice ticked off at each other more times than.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
We did and we always got you coffee.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
He always got me coffee. All Star season, I adored
the crap out of Tony.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Okay, why why so you had a three year hiatus
basically from your first season season eight where you made
the finals, to the All Stars to the tour. Yeah
you so three three three.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
I think we had a lot more respect for I
had one hundred percent respect for Tony and what he
had to do right. And now I saw the show,
I knew what the show was about. I think he
had respect for me, and that I brought a lot
of ideas to the table too, you know, and that
sometimes I found these things on YouTube. I'm like, dude,
look at that trick.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
And that sometimes open to it one hundred.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Percent, which he was not. The first season. Like the
first season, it was Tony's way. The way he wanted it.
But All Star season, we both came in with this,
we are complete freaking underdogs in terms of star power
on this cast. Right, you look at the names that
we were competing against, and we went, let's just do
(33:20):
everything they can do and have fun.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
But you were America's sweetheart.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Still we wouldn't say America's sweetheart. But I mean, I
definitely made a career for myself. It wasn't a christiality career.
It wasn't a career. I mean when you look at
the people on that All Star season, I was like,
I don't have the fan base that they have built in.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
You gained it from we gained this show. We gained it.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
But he came in so much more relaxed and I
came in so much more relaxed.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
And it just because there was no pressure. Like you said,
you were the underdogs, and it.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Was like it was a complete magical season. When I
look back, going we had fun every time, and I
you know, I have nothing but great memories from that
All Star season, and I think he does too. I
think it was it was just magic.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Well and it was his first Mirror Ball, it was
his first win, first Mirror ball and what a way
to win, you know, an All Star season? Yeah, did
you have any I know you're not like this and
you're going to say no, but like, when did you
know you were going to win?
Speaker 2 (34:20):
I never knew we were going to win. I'll be honest.
Going up against Sean again, Okay, I know. Now, let
me just tell you I love Sean and Sean was
one of those people, our very first Johnson, Yes, Shawn
Johnson that we bonded really well, like Sean and I
because yes, bless your heart. Shawn is an olympian and
when her practice started at ten o'clock, she was there
at nine warming up, and by eleven thirty she's pissed
(34:43):
off because Derek still was not there practice.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Oh she dis with Derek that season and Derek.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
And she was always waiting for Derek to get And
that's when I was always on break with Tony and
we would just sit in chat. But watching somebody like
Sean practice, her brain is wired differently than it is.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Same with Emmetts and same with the athletes. That's why
I prefer athletes because time and yeah, they're doing the homework, breathe, dancing.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So it's intimidating to go against that because that's not
my brain, Like I am a brain that requires breaks,
time off, days.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Off, days off. You're on the wrong show, my friend.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
So no, I never there was never a time where
I'm like, we've got this in the bag. And when
it was down to Sean and I at the end
and you know, Tom used the words now they have
one too, where you go, they've won two trophies, are
you talking to Sean? Or now they've won one as
well and you're talking to listen Tony one still.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Oh, so you were starting to get all like it's interesting, right,
Like it starts to like you really obsess over a
few words, like I do the same thing and Jill
did the same thing, you know, like it was back
in season eight, and it was like when we had
made that final. I think it worked against us because
he was obsessing over all those little things. But like,
how can you not, like you've you really dive. You
(36:03):
have to first of all, you can't come on here
and say you've got another job, and the think that
you can only do this part time, Like if you
want to win, or if you even want to make
the finals, you know you got to commit in anything
you do. And I believe though that, like this is
why I don't believe in general there's no such thing
as balance because it's like I've been trained as well
my brain to it's all or nothing. Yes, I'm an addict.
(36:25):
My name is Perdict. But like, look, I think I
thought that maybe you would have came into All Stars
with more pressure, being like having done a season already.
I love that this you had a different mentality going
into it. Yeah, And did you want to dance with
Tony for All Stars or yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Dina had told me, She's like, I can't guarantee who
you're going to have, and I said that's fine, but
I did so I was like, I know Tony. Tony
knows how I dance. If you ever saw Tony and
I practice, like he didn't speak, he would just dance
and I would follow. Like we just had this language
of I can learn from you, Yeah, which I learned
when I did tour, when I had Artem trying to
(37:05):
teach me stuff, and I'm like, I can't learn from
somebody else. I was like, I don't know what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Which made you appreciate Tony even more. Y. Yeah, that
was the good thing with with Tony and I would
say a lot of the og pros in that sense
is that we have learned from the experience that we
we we had, I think to be able to translate
the technique and like what we need to get out
of you as far as execution goes with real words,
like actual words that you understand. And I think that
(37:34):
maybe you know with the newer pros, I just wonder,
like that's the whole thing. You got to kind of
adjust to who you're dealing with, right, Like some people
are visuals. Some people don't care what the step is called,
just freaking do it, you know, just trying to figure
it out. And you got to change your chee teaching.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Much props to you guys for being able to do that.
Like I I don't know how you can change keep
the choreography right, but Chang's teaching style depending on who's
in front of you, by figuring out who they are,
because they can't tell you what kind of learner they
are if they've never danced before, right.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Or if they don't want to learn, they don't want
to be a student. So what I saw an article
years ago you said that your partnership with Tony was
like in or partnerships maybe in general and dancing stars,
it was like an arranged marriage. I always say that
as well. Can you explain to my listeners what you
mean by that one hundred percent? You are forced to
be with this person for eight plus hours a day.
(38:30):
You have to get along. I mean, I mean or
not or not.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
But as an audience member, you can tell when the
partnership hates each other. There was one dance we were
dancing to a Michael Blouble song and I think it
was a cha cha and Tony and I did not
speak all week to each other, Like all week. He
taught me the dance, I learned the dance, and then
we called it quits.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
But what started that? Why don't I.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Think we're just frustrated? I mean, you know, I think
it was the original season. Yeah, you just kind of
get you're getting burnt out and you're getting tired, and
it's I'm just I'm pissed off and you're different because
you're my arranged husband, I can be mad at you.
And the one critique we got from every judge that
week was something's off. Y'all don't seem right now had
(39:16):
they seen footage before, maybe, but I went Tony and
I after that dance, We're like, we got to fix this, Like,
we can't go out looking like we are against each
other because ultimately we're fighting for the same thing. And
if I'm mad at you one week and you're mad
at me one week, we need to figure out how
to get over it, because again, we're on the same team.
We both want we both want the trophy, and I
(39:37):
can't win without you and you can't win without me.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
I started that conversation.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
I think we both did. Honestly, Yeah, I think it was.
I mean, you know, Tony was mature in the sense
he was he was married, he was in a relationship.
He kind of knew how to navigate crazy women, right.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
So you're a crazy girl.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
I wasn't crazy, But you know, it's like we had
this respect for each other ultimately of Okay, you know
I don't I have no I don't hate you. I
really don't, because I know what goal you're trying to
get to, and I know you don't hate me because
I'm trying to help us get to that goal.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
It's just and you're also insecure and vulnerable and just
freaking like, let you know what I mean, Like you're
instead this is not your world.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
No, not at all. But you know, to Tony's credit,
he always knew that and we could always come back
to that. We're on the same team.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah that's good when so okay, So then you make
the finals and I think this, there's season eight eight.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
So look, I believe that there's some seasons where the
casts have the great camaraderie happening between the people and
the cast, and there's some that that is just not
It doesn't click as much. I would say last season,
I don't know if you've been watching the show, but
this past season they amazing. Dina did an amazing job,
so did all the other exacts like that, they had
(40:55):
great chemistry. Would you say that our season was the same.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
I feel like you are a baiting me.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Don't call me Barbara Walters.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
I'm not listen. I will say and I will say this.
I love Sean. I absolutely adore Sean. I think Sean
and I up until the final had a great relationship.
Gel and I maybe, but but it heads a little bit.
She's laughing. This is why you're a bading me. Now,
my issue, my issue personally.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
I don't even remember. Remember I was drinking back then,
you may have something different.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
He started in my mind to take it so seriously
and like he wasn't even allowed to be friends with
me anymore, you know.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
What I mean?
Speaker 2 (41:38):
I you know, before not even before the finals, probably
before two weeks before the finals, like we could talk
in the hallway between practices, and then he almost couldn't
talk to me anymore. I was the enemy, and I
don't know if Sean was the enemy.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
I don't even me is competitive, yeah, the competitive, right, but.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
I would see it happen like he's taking this is
like life or death to him, and he is I
don't know how to handle it.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
And no, I didn't know how to handle it either,
but I definitely did pull him aside and just say
like it's okay.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
And also, like you said, when people fight on camp
or when people are fighting just people are not stupid
at home, Like especially watching this past season, I can
tell when people are just not feeling each other, and
it's always at that mid season mark where you just
like want to kill each other. Yeah. But then also
with Gille, I said, look you can there's a difference
and that's when it started becoming a downhill slope because
(42:33):
we start we were getting like tens season or week
four or something, and you know, I was like, you
have to you can't, but then you also can't change anybody, right.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Right, Yeah? No, he he was in it to win
it one hundred percent, and it was I'm not competing
against friends anymore, you know.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
So he just stopped talking to you basically.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah, And to be honest, All Stars felt very similar.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
With him where I was not his partner, so I
can't value that.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
I was like, I don't. And again I went into
All Stars with this whole like.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
No, you were full of positive energy.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Was I was like, listen, I'm the next one out,
so it's fine, and no, he yeah, I don't. I
don't relate to personalities like that again because that's just
not how I am, and so I tend to just
be like back away, got it noted where I saw.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
And that's where Sean is like silent but deadley because
it's like, you know, she's an actual Olympian and she
was like I think that was giving her more fire.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, no.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Okay, Well that's the end of that and that plane
ride must have been very awkward then, huh, please remind me.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
We're going to do fan questions and rapid fire so
at B I stuck at pronouncing these Instagram names at
p D monkey okay, as Wow, which partner would you
want if you weren't paired with Tony?
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Oh, that's not fair.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Just say it. I don't.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
I really don't know.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Na kay, let's let's to make it fair. Pick somebody
from last season.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
I would say, I'll just say Artam because I've learned
dances from Ardham before he taught me on tour, so
I would say, now I'm terrified of him and I
don't know what to say to him ever.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
But he's also silent. But Dudley, yes, wait, I have
a question before we really get into this, I forgot
to ask you, you know how Okay, So there's a
lot of like hookups on Dancing with the Stars and stuff.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
No, I did not hook up with anybody.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I know that. We all know this. You guys wanted
to kill each other. God, that would have been some hot, passionate, intimate,
interesting things happening. No, I know that. But if you
like Okay, so one of my questions is basically like
the fact that who do you think falls in love first?
Is it the pro or is it the celebrity because
they're I mean, look, I am going to be the
first to take accountability here. Have I hooked up with
(45:04):
some people? Maybe?
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Maybe?
Speaker 1 (45:06):
But I also know this that like either you have
developed this professional relationship or it becomes this like interesting
toxic relationship in a way. But you, you and Ty
had just you guys were just dating. How did he
handle it all?
Speaker 2 (45:24):
He was fine once he knew my partner was married.
How about that first time around when we were googling
everybody and he goes, I don't want you with Derek.
I don't want you with March I don't And let's
be honest. These kids were twenty at the time.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Okay, when I joined Dancing with the Stars, they were
they weren't they were twenty?
Speaker 2 (45:41):
They were young?
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Yes, they were, they were very young.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah. Young. But once he knew that I had a
married husband, like he married man, he's got kids, I
was like, oh, you're fine.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
But if you were doing it with Derek, then it
would have been a problem that.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
He probably would have had some jeal it not just Derek,
any any of the simple Yeah, because what Ty found
out with Dancing with the Stars is that those are
straight young men. It is It is not a world
of like, your woman is safe with these dancers. Not
that he quickly realized, Oh, they're all on the prel
(46:17):
all the time.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Excuse me, they were. You know, you're right, you're right,
you're right. Okay, all right, tis very smart. Okay, let's
move back on to fair questions at April Chatterbox, which
routine was the hardest to learn? And why give? For me?
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Give is a very unnatural way for I'm a ballerina,
you know, well.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
You're also a cheerleader, though maybe give was good for you.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
I mean, Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders is deceiving. They're dancers, they're
not cheerleaders. I never really cheered. I didn't tumble, I
didn't do any of that. But I'm a very straight
up and down dancer. And so the thought of like,
I don't even still know where the flicks and the
kicks and all of them, I were really awkward doing jives.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
You looked amazing at missus, Sally. Why are you so
over the top with your kid's birthday parties? Left out loud.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
I know it's a problem. It's gotten worse every year too.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
You spoil them.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
They no, I decorate. If you've ever seen, like my
kitchen gets transformed into like get it, balloon heaven. They
tell me what colors they want, and I I have
just a few years left with my kids when it
comes to birthdays and stuff like that. So I'm like,
I'm gonna make the biggest still that I can. I'm
going to ruin any spouse for their future that they're
(47:31):
going to have to continue to do this. But at
your dip it and yeah, we make a big deal
about birdies here.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
I mean I didn't even know you popped out another
two kids. Like this is how out of touch I am.
And I must say I don't scroll Instagram because it's
not good for my mental health. So this first of all,
I don't know if you've seen my home freaking decor.
I think I'm like Betty Crocker over here. So so
we should get together, okay. At Paz B two seven three,
(47:59):
how did you get back with Tie after The Bachelor?
We already covered that, Yeah right, yeah, I had Kenzie
Fulcher four to one three not a question, but Melissa
is my favorite dancer that's been on the show. How sweet? Okay,
rapid fire also from the fans, Except you're going to
answer this question that I had already asked, who falls
in love first? The celebrity or the pro dancer?
Speaker 2 (48:17):
I think celebrity.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Yeah, yeah, you're right at Heidi Lane zero seven? What
was harder Dancing with the Stars or the bachelor? Dancing
with the Stars at PZB again, hey two seven three?
Who's your favorite male dancer on Dancing with the Stars
currently currently?
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Give them to me again? Who's on right now?
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Alan? Dam Alan, Sasha, Pasha Gleb.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
You know what I'm gonna say, Sasha because he can't
forgetting Sasha was my buddy on tour. We were Kashia,
I love she danced with Alison Yes? Yeah, session at
Lauren Houseworth. How many hours a day are rehearsals for
DCC versus Dancing with the Stars Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Yeah, DCC.
I would leave my work at five, get there at six,
(49:06):
and I'd get home at midnight. Every night leather five am,
five pm, I'd leave my work. I was at work
eight to five and then I write I was practiced
from six to eleven rower work. I had to work, Yes,
had to a nine.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
To five bills, Got it? Got It sends rock my socks.
That's kind of candy. Would you ever do All Stars
two point zero? I think if they did another one,
you should be on it if you wanted.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
You know what? Ideally, I would love to. My body
is a little older now. I think there's enough young
talent to go and do another All Star season.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
But Derek said this. He did an interview recently and
he said, I think all the winners should do All Stars.
Would you would say no?
Speaker 2 (49:50):
If we're all the same age? Ish? Like? Do I
want to be competing against Hannah Brown?
Speaker 1 (49:54):
No?
Speaker 2 (49:55):
I don't like you know what I.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Mean, really competing against them?
Speaker 2 (49:58):
We know that Well, I can't move quite as much
as I.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Have a bad back. You would be the only so
you would ruin the whole Stars would but I have.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
A bat that goes out now my back has gone
out ryl.
Speaker 1 (50:09):
You would say yes. Dina Kats would say yes.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
Well, if she told me the amount I could make
that first week again, I'm easily to change. Susan knows that.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
I love it, Okay. Was it harder to do your
first season same person or All Stars.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
First season harder?
Speaker 1 (50:27):
For sure? At adi m West did you like your
first season or All Stars better? You already answered that
you okay, And that's it, my friend. You made it.
You made it without you know blushing.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
I love you, I do.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
I love you too? Where can people find you?
Speaker 2 (50:46):
Melury Strick on Instagram? I'm still on Facebook?
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Just so you also have a podcast?
Speaker 2 (50:51):
I do have a podcast. Ty and I have one together,
logically irrational. Sorry I'm really bad about that.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
Wait, so wait, tell us more.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
We've been doing it for about six years now. We
got the idea because he and I are dorks at
night and we just watched you know, reality TV pop
culture and it's very interesting the way guys view things
and the way girls view things and the conversations that
we would have, and so we started a podcast. Like
I said, it's been six years, which is crazy, and
(51:19):
it's it's good. It's you know, it keeps me busy,
it's my income and yeah, no, it's it's.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
And it's also, how is it working with your husband? Well,
we all were.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
To work together an hour a week technically because all
get everything ready. He comes in having no idea what
we're talking about, and we record and then he goes
back to work. So it's great. It works, and you
have guests and stuff for don't do the guests now.
We just kind of cook us and we do our
our lives. We do a reality round up, he'll he
(51:51):
does this Tidbits with Ty where he tries to talk
sports to people.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
It's fun, cute chemistry, so people canbviously listen to anywhere
they listen to podcasts. Absolutely, yes, thank you, my friend.
It's so great to see your face.
Speaker 2 (52:05):
That's what I like going to congrats on everything. I
love you, I thank.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
You, I love you, Thank you so much. Happy holidays.
You make sure you guys follow us at sex Lies
and spray tands on our Instagram handle and make sure
your comment. Let me know who you want me to interview.
What do you all think? Let me know
This is Sex Lies and Spray Tans with Me Cheryl
Burke and iHeartRadio Podcast. Welcome back to Sex Lies and
Spray Tans. I'm just gonna jump right in as I
want to have just as much time with my next
guest as possible. We haven't spoken in a few years,
but no matter how long it's been, I still consider
this person a good friend and a part of my
(00:21):
dancing family for life. You know you know her from
the Bachelor. She also is a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader. She
was at Least and she did two seasons of Dancing
with the Stars Season eight and All Stars. Yeah, let's
just get started because I can't wait to catch up.
It's been a few years for sure, so please welcome
my next guest, Melissa Ryecroft Strickland to the show. Hey stranger,
(00:47):
how are you? My gosh? Welcome to Sex Lies and
Spray Tans. I'm doing great? How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
I mean, I'm good. It's been a hot minute since
I've gotten to see you.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
But wait, when was the last time? Was it when
we did our threeesum trio?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Wait to jump on in there, Stebee? Yeah, you know
what it might be. It might have been the trio.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah, I think it was. Actually I think it was.
And you know what, I will never forget it because
we'll get there. We'll get there. We'll get there, because
I really want to know how you really felt every
time Jan Pablo would do that flip.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Oh jeez, I can't, I can't.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
Okay, let's rewind a little bit here. Hey, So I
have to say that, like, out of everybody on the show,
and I've been, I was on for twenty six seasons, obviously, obviously,
so obvious, I have to say that I connected to
you like more than most because you're so grounded, You're
so authentic, and you never change, like you are who
(01:52):
you are and I'm and I totally respect like your authenticity,
your vulnerability and everything. Like me and you would have
some heart to heart about how crazy this process was,
and I don't know, it's just that, you know, I
feel obviously we all have our own lives and we
all evolve, but I feel like we're just going to
(02:12):
pick up where we left off.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
So yeah, I know, love that, don't you when you
meet people like that?
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, no, I totally agree. I think you and I
had something special. I ended up at many a random
places going out with you back in the day.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Have you met sober Cheryl yet?
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I have met sober Cheryl. Yes, weren't you okay, Pablo?
Speaker 1 (02:33):
Oh wait no, wait was I sober?
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I think so?
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Oh I just started my sobriety. It's been five and
a half years.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah, congrats by the way.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Thank you, thank you so much. So okay, So for
those of you of my listeners basically that don't watch
The Bachelor, because I have to, like straight up be honest,
you're like I have, I've never seen an episode of
The Bachelor, but watch it like.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Way back in the day when it was first coming out.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
No, because I was always on Dancing with the Stars
or on so it's like at the end, you know
how that schedule is.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
I guess it was not at the same time, wasn't that? Yeah? Okay?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
What so I guess to give us a quick cliff
note version of like what happened? And you know, obviously
I have questions that we'll get into Dancing on Stars.
I would love to talk about, you know, your family
and all of it.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So, okay, cliffs notes version of my time on The Bachelor. Yes,
so my season, I think it was season eight, so
it was still a pretty new franchise. Way back then.
I was twenty two when I went on it, which
now I just hit I know, right, you're shaking your head.
I'm like twenty two and I was like, I can't
(03:40):
find love. I'll never get married. Yeah. And my bachelor
his name was Jason, and long story short, I thought
we had fallen in love, got engaged, and then we
filmed the after the Final Rose about two weeks after
we finished filming, where heke up with me because he
(04:01):
had not lost contact with the other runner up, Mollie.
And then a week later, Dinakats called me to join
Dancing the Stars.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
And my listeners know, but you know Dina Cats because
we always reference her. He's the best. You know it
was Was it a heartbreak for you? Did you fall
in love? Or was it like TV love? Right?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
You know, hindsight one hundred percent is twenty twenty. I
will be completely honest that in the moment, I really
thought I was in love with this guy. I really
thought this is where I'm supposed to be. I was
not in a good place at home, like I had
just quit Cowboys cheerleaders for Ty who's now my husband,
and he broke up with me a week after that.
I did not like the job I was in. I
(04:42):
was just kind of in one of those ruts, you
know what I mean. I found myself in a place
of like, I don't know what to do with my life.
I don't know what's going on, I don't know where
I'm supposed to be. And a friend nominated me for
the Bachelor. So when I got the huge packet anybody
that's seen it's like an eighty page packet that came
in the mail. I filled it out and I was like,
all right, we'll see where this goes. Why not? And
(05:04):
it's like once I got there, something clicked or I
went this is where I'm supposed to be. And so
there's this guy giving me all this attention that I
really craved at that time. You know, I was pretty
insecure going into the Bachelor. I was pretty immature. I
was very young, and I kind of latched onto it,
which is why when I was crying in the Lumino,
(05:26):
I was heartbroken. Yeah, you know, now, looking back, I
was not in love with him, right, you were in lust?
In lust probably? Yes, I loved I loved that he
liked me and gave me that validation. How about that?
Speaker 1 (05:42):
And then also like liked asking the stars. I'm pretty
sure you're consumed within that environment, like there's really not
much outside influence. Is that correct?
Speaker 2 (05:51):
Oh, it's not that there's not much. There's none. There's
no phones. That year, Barack Obama was nominated as president
elected as president, and we had idea like we had
producers come in the next morning to tell us who
was the new president. We had nothing but each other.
So it's a total mind game, Cheryl. It is a
total You have your production assistant with your little galpal
(06:14):
is what they call it. That's with you twenty four
hours a day, just feeding things into you, like, oh,
he was talking about you last night on a day
was so and so, But he came back and said
he liked you to where you're like, oh man, So
it's a mind trip for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Well yeah, and by the way, that's probably why it's
such great television and still going on to this day,
one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
I mean, they just get crazier, crazy, easier.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
So did you had you seen Dancing with the Stars
but before ever.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Or so not Dancing with the Stars. I remember so
when Dina called me. It's hard to the timeline's hard
to explain because the Bachelor filmed and it didn't air
for three months after that, right, So Dina technically didn't
call me until three months after Bachelor had ended and
the after the Final rows had aired on TV.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
So I know January twenty nineteen. I did a little
bit of research then, and then it looks like in
like two weeks you all of a sudden met tie.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Well that's what it looked like on TV. So were
my season of Bachelor ended filming before Thanksgiving, so that's
when we were done. The after the final rowse filmed
December third or fifth. I remember those dates.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
So it was not live.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
No, it was not live at all, especially that one,
because everybody kind of knew what was going to happen,
so there was no audience for that, which I didn't.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
Now you didn't know at all.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I had no idea, I said. I mean, I had
no idea that he was about to break up with
me and you. No, I had no idea. We were
talking and he had he beforehand. I was like, is
there anything that I need to know? Walking into this,
Like I assume things were not great. I'm gonna be
real honest, Like once we didn't see each other long
distance with he and I. I'm a pretty outgoing and
(08:05):
he's not. And I noticed that pretty early on when
all you have his phone calls. But I was like,
maybe we just put on a united front for the camera. Right.
They had told me they were bumping up the filming
of this after the final rows for Bachelorette production, which
I believed, which now to come back was not true.
He just wanted to get with Molly and so production
(08:25):
bumped everything up before that. So no, I walked in
going He's told me we're fine. I wore the stupid
ring on my finger.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Did you guys see each other? Don't you guys like
shack up in a secret like hiding girl?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
We weren't even together long enough?
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Oh got it? O? No, we did not. We didn't
do all and you had no inkling like that. Maybe
this guy's just not into me.
Speaker 2 (08:47):
Oh listen. I think I knew at that point like
this is not it's not happening. But again, in my mind,
I'm like, but we this was a show we made.
We got to kind of pretend like we're still great
and maybe we'll talk about the problems that we're having.
I did not expect the I'm still in love with
Mollie and I've been talking with Molly and I haven't
(09:09):
and I was like, oh god, well now I just
feel really stupid. And again you talk about a mind
trip with that, I went two months of my life
not being able to tell anybody that one I thought
I had fallen in love, that I had gotten engaged,
and then that I had gotten dumped. And I'm holding
all of that in because you know, you signed the
contract and I was terrified to break that contract. And
(09:32):
so the emotional roller coaster going through my mind those
two months before things aired, and I was like, I
was embarrassed. I mean, my parents are still the only
parents that have never been on the show. They were
so against it, did not want to be a part
of it. And I just felt like, oh god, now, yes,
yes to go Bob and Mary.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Yes, Bob and Mary.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Shout out to them, but yeah, I was really embarrassed
with how it was going to air and everybody was
going to hate me, and I don't no, I just
it gave me like this severe anxiety.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
And your producer, You're like, what you're like my bestie,
well not only that.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
I'm in the limo crying, going what the heck just happened?
And she goes, hey, great news. Now you get to
be the Bachelorette. And I was like, are you what?
Like that's my condemnation price for going through all of
this is that I get to be I don't want
to be the Bachelor.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Wait, so were you the bachelorette?
Speaker 2 (10:24):
No? They they tried very hard. I'm gonna be honest.
They sent they I got gifts. I got enticed with
a lot of money, but I ultimately was like absolutely not.
I don't trust you people. I don't want anything to do.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
With good for you that. So, yeah, well kind of gifts.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
They were good. Let me just say the Bachelor.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
And that was when Mike Swiss was running the show.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Correct, Slice was the head of the Yeah he's a captain.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
And Chris Harrison and all of it, like the OGG exactly. Yeah, okay,
So then Dina Katz did you have did you know
who she was?
Speaker 2 (11:03):
No? I had no idea. At this point, I'm still
dodging ABC's calls because I was like, I have said, oh,
I want nothing to do with y'all. I'm back in
my cubicle. Tye and I had reconnected again.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
How did that reconnection happen?
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You know what's funny? So I got I got engaged
in New Zealand. And when I got back in the
country and they gave me my phone back, you're laughing,
but it's true. When I got my phone back and
I turned it on, I had all these messages from
Tie and I was like, what the heck of course
now you call because you don't have me And my
phone just started ringing and it was Tie trying to
(11:39):
get a hold of me. And I had developed on
The Bachelor. If I can credit the Bachelor with anything,
take the career stuff away, but like personally, the confidence
that I gained of I know what I'm worth, I
know what I want, and I know what I'm not
going to put up with kind of stuff, everything that
I had gone through, and it made me so angry
(12:00):
at high and I was like, how dare you call
me knowing I'm happy and I'm in another situation?
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Wait, why did he dump you the first good time?
Or before this?
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Twenty five?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (12:13):
One and't ready? I mean, and he had always said
he was like, you're the one, I'm just not ready
for you now, which I never understood as a twenty
two year old. I was like, I don't get it, though,
I'm right here and you're willing to let me go.
And now I'm so much more mature and older, and
I'm like, I get it, I totally and I don't
want kids to be in those relationships at twenty two
and twenty five. Yeah, but he was. He was just
(12:36):
being honest, and I can't you know, you can't be
mad about that. But what happened is once I did leave,
he had the oh crap, maybe I did let her go.
And the longer I was gone, he was like, oh god,
I think something may have happened with somebody else.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Right, And then you developed your own self worth and
self confidence as a woman, and he had a network
chasing after you, wanting you to be the bachelorette. And
then dakast is like, come on this ballroom dance show
exactly boom, what a great like you know, turnaround. You know,
in a way, it's like the fact that first of all,
that you had the confidence to say no to being
(13:10):
the bachelorette is the kudos to you, because you know,
obviously it could have been tempting with all the gifts
and money they were throwing at you, and plus you
were also at your most vulnerable.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
Right right. I was also upset though, Like I this
was before reality TV kind of became what it is now.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
There's not social media. We didn't go on the show
to become famous. Nobody became famous after you or a
bat on the Bachelor season, right.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Because you were one of the first bachelorettes other than
Trista Sutter obviously, but then it was you. There was
no other one, Yes, And when I talked to.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
Dina, she was like, the only reason I called you
is because of that. After the final rows, you know
when it's kind of like they built the storyline where
everybody wanted you all to be together, and then they
saw the heartbreak and it just so happens that Nancy
O'Dell had gotten hurt the day.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Oh my god, that was it.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
It was the day, yes, the day that my after
the Final Rose aired, she had gotten hurt and Dina
jumped out. I was near within what two days and
I had three days to practice with Tony, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Only three days during Oh my god, mm hmmm that's insanity.
Speaker 2 (14:19):
But no, I had never seen Dancing with the Stars.
And Dina called me, and I originally said no. I
was like, I hate ABC, I hate you all your
horrible people. And then I called Tie because again we're
dating at this point, and he goes, well, how much
money is it? And I went, ooh, I didn't ask.
So I called back, you didn't ask. Dina told me
what the opening week amount was and I was like,
(14:41):
that's four years of my salary sitting in my cubicle.
And I went, I can do a week. I could
go out for a week and dance and embarrass myself.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Wait, you thought, okay, wait, hold on, So was it
more money than what they were going to offer you
to be the best road? No, it was not.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Here you'll know this number. My The what they offered
for Bachelorette was what you make the finale week of
dancing with it.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Okay, yeah, okay, so that but but but was there
any chance because in your contract would you would they
have to have approved you going on dancing.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
Yes, And this was the call that I got. It
was a producer from Bachelor who called me and said,
we're going to connect you with someone from Dancing with
the Stars. Their whole thing at Bachelor was that they
wanted the audience to see that I was okay. And
if I'm not going to do Bachelorette, what other avenue
can they do to show the world that, look, it's
not a horrible franchise, We're not bad people. She's okay,
(15:37):
which is why they then allowed me to do Dancing
with the.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Sid is right right, save their own ass.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
Yes, I'm looking back, what they've done it again? Probably not,
but I think I think they would have. Why not,
because you're right they there needs to be a story,
like you can't just ball off the you know, ran
it the way that it ended. I think in their
minds they just saw my redemption story would be I'd
be the Bachelorette, everybody would see me fall in love
and the world goes as it should be. But because
(16:04):
I didn't do Bachelorette, they found themselves in a position
of like, well, holy heck, what are we supposed to
do to let everybody know that everything is still okay?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
And do you think you would have done it? If
you and I? I wouldn't have gotten back together.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Bachelorette, No, I know for sure, because I kept telling them.
I was like, you threw me under the bus, why
would you not do it again if I was the lead?
And they kept saying, we protect our leads. But when
the after the final rows came out, I said, but
you didn't, because you just threw Jason under the bus
too and made him look like an idiot, which I
have a lot of sympathy for the position he was
(16:38):
in at that time too, now twenty years later, but
I'm like, you don't protect your lead. You make a show,
and I understand that, and I'm not saying anything bad
about but I understand what you're doing, and I'm not
going to put myself back in that situation.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Right good for you look like an idiot. And also,
don't say that you're protecting your lead when you're just
not so right.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
But that's exactly what they told me, like we protect
our lead, and I'm like, yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Okay, So moving on to Dancing to These Stars, you
didn't request Tony because you had no idea. Okay, So
this was the season when I danced with Gille Marine,
I remember, and we all made the finals. So we're
going to get there because I don't think my listeners
have heard like the whole ABC jet experience yet because
(17:23):
I don't think I have I interviewed a finalist yet.
I don't know. I don't think the question hasn't been asked,
but I know that they're curious. You also have tons
of fan questions and we have to play rapid fire
because it's a thing. But we're not there yet. Okay,
(17:44):
So how was your So you had three days? What
was your first dance? I'm assuming chatcha.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
No, it was a waltz. Oh really, And I'm gonna
say that my dress was hideous because I guess it
was made Nancy And they told me Nancy was very
modest and one to be like covered up, and they
didn't have enough time to create also like very tall. Oh,
they had to alter it, but they couldn't make a
new dress. So I was in Nancy Odell's dress. They
(18:10):
just they she is I think five inches taller than me.
But I was like, I feel like I'm a nun.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
So this was before they made rules for training, so
like we used to be able to rehearse as many
hours as we wanted prior to the live show, and
then all these people started getting injured, like Jewel like
Nancy O'Dell and that was that was when they made
the rule of four hours maximum basically up until like
mid season. Yeah, because it is a shock obviously to
(18:37):
your body and also mentally in all of it. But
like that is crazy. I've always said they need to
do a season of all the people that got injured
and so they have another chance at this, you know
what I mean. Like, by the way, Jewel, that's a
huge booking. I'll take it, right, But you know, at
the end of the day, look, everything's meant to be obviously,
(18:58):
Now when you had dance ex do you come from
the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders you kind of Also I heard
an interview you did recently where you said that you
had weigh ends.
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Oh on the Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Yeah, is that real?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
They don't do that anymore. We have to think good times, right,
I mean this was I was a cheerleader back in
two thousand and five, so I mean it was a
different time, you know. But yes, we had daily weighans
and you had to be within a specific weight from
your tryout weight, and we were constantly on you know,
(19:33):
felt the pressure of there was weight warning or weight watch.
There was weight warning and there was weight probation. What yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
Wait, what's weight watch? What's what?
Speaker 2 (19:42):
What much means you've gone above the five pounds that
you tried out with, and weight warning means that if
you gain anymore, you're out of uniform, and weight probation
as you're out of uniform. Yeah, I mean it sounds awful,
and I hate saying that because I love the awful.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
It doesn't sound awful, but.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
A this was twenty years ago when kind of it
was kind of the culture. So none of us protest.
And I'll be honest, there's a there were a lot
of diet pills. There are a lot of I'm sure
water pills. We would when you knew there was a
way in, like for six hours before, you wouldn't eat
or drink anything because you didn't want to.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Of course, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Tip this swing.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
What if you're on your period.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Yeah, well you can't do anything about that. I mean, no,
you can't. It was it was Yeah, I think I
think at that time there were a lot of us
that kind of left with body issues. I wasn't even
aware of what my body looked like until I was
a Cowboys cheerleader, and then I was like oh man, okay,
and now I've and not only that, I was a
cheerleader when I was twenty two twenty three. Your body's changing,
(20:41):
you know what I mean? Of course, if anybody looks
at what I looked like my first year to what
I looked like my second year, my body is very
different because I was just suring woman, still growing, and
you know, I don't have a lot of curves, but
my curves were coming that hadn't been there before. So
it definitely messes with you mentally, like why am I
am my five pounds heavier than I was a couple
(21:02):
of weeks ago And I'm not doing anything different.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
But do you suffer from body dysmorphia?
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I think I did for a little bit.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, got it.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
I mean I had always been naturally smaller, but anytime
that weight came on, I was like, whoa freaking out
a little bit again because I had I didn't grow
up with social media. I think it's a blessing share
all the way you and I grew up. I didn't
know what other people looked like other than my friends,
and so he all kind of grew up quote unquote
confident that I'm happy. And then you see other people
(21:32):
around you, and you're compared to other people around you,
and then you feel the pressure of oh, okay, all right,
now I have to keep this and it's not as
a woman, it's not ea.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
And you're in front of mirrors, like I always say,
like when I was a dance like when I was
a competitor, that is, I didn't have actual way in,
but I did in a way like my dance coach,
you know. I remember he put me on this thing
called the Hollywood diet, which was just literally like at
the yeah, yeah, no, it just came in a ball.
And I remember we were driving to Blackpool, that big
competition in England, and I was driving and I had
(22:05):
to pee every two seconds because I was just like,
this is just the only thing that I was on
and did it work absolutely. But like I've noticed too,
like even when we were for example, I'll never forget,
like I was looking at obviously old pictures of us
recently and I definitely still suffer from body dysmorphius. So
I'm working through it, you know. I think. Look, I
(22:28):
think that being in front of the mirror since I
was a little girl, the comparison is almost gonna have
it's just natural, like you can't avoid it, especially when
when dancing, whether it was ballet at my time, but
I also developed at nine years old. I looked the same.
My body looks the same as it did when I
was nine, And it's it's crazy because also on Dancing
(22:49):
with the Stars, you know, like you see everything and
we're on TV, and you know, any back roll that
I would have and then I will never forget our
trio when we had our fitting and then looking at
pictures now I was so skinny, and I was giving Daniella,
the head of wardrobe, shout out to her so much
crap about because like my insecurity is obviously any anyone
(23:11):
who's insecure will just put it out on somebody. And
I was so testy and I was like, do I
look fat compared to Melissa? And I was just like
hounding her and it's so my thigh is as big
as my calf now, you know, it's like and it
was just crazy, how sick? Yeah, I was really, And
it's sad.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
It is sad. But if anybody looks at the world
again that you grew up in and you're constantly being
compared to other people, you know, I mean, I don't know.
I don't know if I would have survived in a
world like that, but that's what you were in and
not until I was twenty two, though I didn't grow
up with it. Oh so I had I had a
(23:51):
little bit of maturity. But at twenty two, I think
we can all look back and be like, you still
don't know anything? Like you still you know. I'm just
now getting to a point where I'm like, I am
I'm forty, right, I'm flipping forty year.
Speaker 1 (24:05):
I'm about to be forty. Actually, I just can't wait.
Thirty nine is just like okay, it's like almost there.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Yes, but I will tell you what comes with forty
is I'm like, I don't look the way that I
did back on dancing with a stir or back when
I can gorgeous. But I'm fine. I'm like, I'm fine
because I'm healthy. I think I'm the healthiest I've been
in my entire life. I'm working out more, I eat
insanely well just because i want to, because it makes
me feel good, you know. So I'm like, I feel
(24:31):
like I am the healthiest i've been. I'm not the
skinniest i've been, and I don't think that you would
ever look at me and be like, she looks like
she's the healthiest, but like I feel the best that
I have.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
That's how that matters.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah, if maybe that just comes at a forty confidence
of like, it is what it is, and I'm not
going to put myself to You know.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Did you ever feel the pressure on dancing, or on
Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, or even on the Bachelorette to stay
at a certain weight? Maybe not Dallas Cowboy trailers. Obviously
you had the pressure.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Her boys, and not even Bachelorette. To be honest, I
didn't feel any pressure. I think I started to feel
it on dancing because that was tabloid time, right, Like, no,
all the tabloids were really big, and they focused a
lot on my body, and oh my god, how fit
she is? How I did all these fit ads and
how beautiful?
Speaker 1 (25:20):
Do you know what I'm saying? Six pack? Yes?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Right, yeah, Look how much weight she's lost throughout this process,
which does come naturally. But once it ends, I'm like,
well now I have to stay like, I have to
keep up this body because it's been you know, she's
kind of the fit ambassador for ABC, so I did
have to feel it then, and that's probably when those
body issues that came right when I was twenty two
(25:44):
twenty three, sunk in of like how do I keep
this up? Even though it's not necessarily natural?
Speaker 1 (25:50):
What could you do?
Speaker 2 (25:51):
You know if I maybe just don't eat as much
or you know, you know, and.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Then you had so ava was I mean I first
of all, I know, like I'll never forget. Was it
social media around then? Yes?
Speaker 2 (26:03):
No, our first season Advancing with the Stars, there was not.
I mean there was, but nobody really knew of social media,
like there was Twitter. I think maybe that just had crime, right,
I'll never forget. Like did you have like a lot
of paparazzi.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
And like like random pictures that of your of yourself taken,
like if you're on a beach or whatever.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Well, yes, and no, I mean I'm in Dallas. We've
always lived in Dallas, so there's not a lot of
paparazzi here. Now when we would go to La there
would be, yeah, But other than that, I didn't have
paparazzi like sneaking in my bushes and stuff because when
I wasn't working, I'm home in Dallas just doing my
normal thing.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Yeah, that's smart. Okay, So that's interesting, by the way,
And you know what I have to say, even if
I'm not on the show, and after retiring, I definitely
still it's still it's so it's like my brain is
so wired to go back to that way of thinking,
and it does take a lot of inner work and
self love and not being defined by the outside world,
(27:01):
whether that's your job or what you see. So you
think you see yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure it
helps with your kids and like, how do you I guess,
you know, be a mentor to your especially your daughter
like Ava, you know, just to be able to set
an example. I feel like it's even worse now, I
would say, within the gen zs than it's ever been.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Yeah. No, it's a struggle daily with Ava. She's she's
gonna be thirteen and I'm gonna have a thirteen year
old teen month. I know, I know I can't do it.
But social media is her life. Filters are her life,
likes in this are her life, and it's a world
that we didn't grow up in and so I'm navigating
(27:46):
it with her and in the things that I talked
to with her, it's just she just doesn't have the
mental capacity sometimes when I say things to her about
what matters and what doesn't matter, because right now all
that matters to her it's friends and likes and social
and this I mean and I remember that time. And
so I'm learning with her of how to let you
(28:08):
do that, because that is normal. But you are doing
it on a scale that none of us at my
age are. I don't even I don't even know how
to parent you with social media.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
And the pressure. Does she have rules? Like does she
have rules on when she can use it?
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Or oh, well, she first of all doesn't have her
own social media. She's his mine, so like my good talk,
it's my snapchat, so that I'm like, you can post it,
but it's my account. I can see who's on it.
But I've noticed, like she loves the filters that make
her lips big and her nose really narrow and all
of that, and I'm like, no, babe, you're so beautiful
the way you are. You're so beautiful. And that's just
(28:49):
the struggle I think we're all going to have of
you are competing with filters and people with money and
plastic surgery and unrealistic expectations that totally have growing up
that she is getting at twelve years old.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
And so does she want to dance that? Like if
you if let's say, let's say she does.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, that's all right. Well she wants to.
She literally wants to follow it. She's like, I want
to be a Dallas Cowboys shoulder and then I'm going
to be on Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
I'm like, oh, and so what do you? But are
you going to just let her, you know, spread her
wings and fly or.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
If that's if that's your avenue, that's your avenue. I
hate that the bar has been set really high for
her in something that she loves, because only failure can
come if she doesn't accomplish that.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
And I hate that for her, you know, but lessons
from failure. There's no success without it.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Right, But as a parent, you don't you don it
on like, I.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Don't know how that feels.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
I don't want to see you try for something that
you've been wanting ten years and not getting. I'm not
saying she won't, I just I you know, I look
back at my resume going I don't know how the
heck guy did it? I feel like it's like this
fairy tale. It was just luck and stuff written in
the sod.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Your parents push you to do anything.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
My mom put me in dance it too. She grew
up in a household where she was not allowed to dance,
and so she was sure to have a dancer. But
what it did was it burnt me out. You know.
By thirteen fourteen, I was like, I'm done, mom, I
don't want to do this, which is you know, I
didn't dance for a while and come dancing with the stars.
I felt rusty. But when I look back, I'm like,
I really kind of looked like I knew what I
(30:26):
was doing. But yeah, no, I was pushed into it
for sure. I didn't do anything else other than the dance.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Got it, Got it. So you had a dance mom.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
I had a dance mom that didn't want to admit
she was a dancing.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
By the way, I have the same exact story. I
always say, I covered the original dance mom. I love
you mom. She listened.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I love Mary too. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Okay, So what was your partnership like with Tony.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
First time around? Total? I would say brother sister drow
each other nuts. I've been I vented to you a
lot where I was like, oh my god, I don't
know how it didn't. He would always call me his
little brat, like we just bumped heads because I didn't
understand the process, right, I'm coming from my cubicle experience
(31:14):
on The Bachelor, which you can't even say is real
reality TV. And Tony, I mean, can you say Tony
was one of the most serious instructors that y'all had,
if not the most.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
I mean I would say he was the most experienced,
and he was the most experienced and most formal instructor.
I will say, like definitely, and and I love that
because I love old school. Like when I see these
kids on Dancing with the Stars come into rehearsal with sneakers,
I'm like, first of all, that is not profess I
get so upset about it. And I'm like, how dare
you let your celebrity rehearse in short ill and sneakers?
(31:50):
Like how these people cobad kids put a Latin skirt
on some heels and put a smile on your face
for God's sake.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
That's the way to describe. So Tony was. He was professional,
and he was there to do it, and he was
there absolutely, and my brain just didn't work that way.
I was like, I need breaks, and I need time
off and I.
Speaker 1 (32:08):
Need can we have lunch exactly? Now.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
We always worked really well together, We were a great partnership.
But our first season, and I think he would agree,
we definitely butted heads a lot. We would come into
practice ticked off at each other more times than.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
We did and we always got you coffee.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
He always got me coffee. All Star season, I adored
the crap out of Tony.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Okay, why why so you had a three year hiatus
basically from your first season season eight where you made
the finals, to the All Stars to the tour. Yeah
you so three three three.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
I think we had a lot more respect for I
had one hundred percent respect for Tony and what he
had to do right. And now I saw the show,
I knew what the show was about. I think he
had respect for me, and that I brought a lot
of ideas to the table too, you know, and that
sometimes I found these things on YouTube. I'm like, dude,
look at that trick.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
And that sometimes open to it one hundred.
Speaker 2 (32:59):
Percent, which he was not. The first season. Like the
first season, it was Tony's way. The way he wanted it.
But All Star season, we both came in with this,
we are complete freaking underdogs in terms of star power
on this cast. Right, you look at the names that
we were competing against, and we went, let's just do
(33:20):
everything they can do and have fun.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
But you were America's sweetheart.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Still we wouldn't say America's sweetheart. But I mean, I
definitely made a career for myself. It wasn't a christiality career.
It wasn't a career. I mean when you look at
the people on that All Star season, I was like,
I don't have the fan base that they have built in.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
You gained it from we gained this show. We gained it.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
But he came in so much more relaxed and I
came in so much more relaxed.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
And it just because there was no pressure. Like you said,
you were the underdogs, and it.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Was like it was a complete magical season. When I
look back, going we had fun every time, and I
you know, I have nothing but great memories from that
All Star season, and I think he does too. I
think it was it was just magic.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
Well and it was his first Mirror Ball, it was
his first win, first Mirror ball and what a way
to win, you know, an All Star season? Yeah, did
you have any I know you're not like this and
you're going to say no, but like, when did you
know you were going to win?
Speaker 2 (34:20):
I never knew we were going to win. I'll be honest.
Going up against Sean again, Okay, I know. Now, let
me just tell you I love Sean and Sean was
one of those people, our very first Johnson, Yes, Shawn
Johnson that we bonded really well, like Sean and I
because yes, bless your heart. Shawn is an olympian and
when her practice started at ten o'clock, she was there
at nine warming up, and by eleven thirty she's pissed
(34:43):
off because Derek still was not there practice.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Oh she dis with Derek that season and Derek.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
And she was always waiting for Derek to get And
that's when I was always on break with Tony and
we would just sit in chat. But watching somebody like
Sean practice, her brain is wired differently than it is.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Same with Emmetts and same with the athletes. That's why
I prefer athletes because time and yeah, they're doing the homework, breathe, dancing.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
So it's intimidating to go against that because that's not
my brain, Like I am a brain that requires breaks,
time off, days.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Off, days off. You're on the wrong show, my friend.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
So no, I never there was never a time where
I'm like, we've got this in the bag. And when
it was down to Sean and I at the end
and you know, Tom used the words now they have
one too, where you go, they've won two trophies, are
you talking to Sean? Or now they've won one as
well and you're talking to listen Tony one still.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Oh, so you were starting to get all like it's interesting, right,
Like it starts to like you really obsess over a
few words, like I do the same thing and Jill
did the same thing, you know, like it was back
in season eight, and it was like when we had
made that final. I think it worked against us because
he was obsessing over all those little things. But like,
how can you not, like you've you really dive. You
(36:03):
have to first of all, you can't come on here
and say you've got another job, and the think that
you can only do this part time, Like if you
want to win, or if you even want to make
the finals, you know you got to commit in anything
you do. And I believe though that, like this is
why I don't believe in general there's no such thing
as balance because it's like I've been trained as well
my brain to it's all or nothing. Yes, I'm an addict.
(36:25):
My name is Perdict. But like, look, I think I
thought that maybe you would have came into All Stars
with more pressure, being like having done a season already.
I love that this you had a different mentality going
into it. Yeah, And did you want to dance with
Tony for All Stars or yeah?
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Dina had told me, She's like, I can't guarantee who
you're going to have, and I said that's fine, but
I did so I was like, I know Tony. Tony
knows how I dance. If you ever saw Tony and
I practice, like he didn't speak, he would just dance
and I would follow. Like we just had this language
of I can learn from you, Yeah, which I learned
when I did tour, when I had Artem trying to
(37:05):
teach me stuff, and I'm like, I can't learn from
somebody else. I was like, I don't know what you're saying.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Which made you appreciate Tony even more. Y. Yeah, that
was the good thing with with Tony and I would
say a lot of the og pros in that sense
is that we have learned from the experience that we
we we had, I think to be able to translate
the technique and like what we need to get out
of you as far as execution goes with real words,
like actual words that you understand. And I think that
(37:34):
maybe you know with the newer pros, I just wonder,
like that's the whole thing. You got to kind of
adjust to who you're dealing with, right, Like some people
are visuals. Some people don't care what the step is called,
just freaking do it, you know, just trying to figure
it out. And you got to change your chee teaching.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Much props to you guys for being able to do that.
Like I I don't know how you can change keep
the choreography right, but Chang's teaching style depending on who's
in front of you, by figuring out who they are,
because they can't tell you what kind of learner they
are if they've never danced before, right.
Speaker 1 (38:08):
Or if they don't want to learn, they don't want
to be a student. So what I saw an article
years ago you said that your partnership with Tony was
like in or partnerships maybe in general and dancing stars,
it was like an arranged marriage. I always say that
as well. Can you explain to my listeners what you
mean by that one hundred percent? You are forced to
be with this person for eight plus hours a day.
(38:30):
You have to get along. I mean, I mean or
not or not.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
But as an audience member, you can tell when the
partnership hates each other. There was one dance we were
dancing to a Michael Blouble song and I think it
was a cha cha and Tony and I did not
speak all week to each other, Like all week. He
taught me the dance, I learned the dance, and then
we called it quits.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
But what started that? Why don't I.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Think we're just frustrated? I mean, you know, I think
it was the original season. Yeah, you just kind of
get you're getting burnt out and you're getting tired, and
it's I'm just I'm pissed off and you're different because
you're my arranged husband, I can be mad at you.
And the one critique we got from every judge that
week was something's off. Y'all don't seem right now had
(39:16):
they seen footage before, maybe, but I went Tony and
I after that dance, We're like, we got to fix this, Like,
we can't go out looking like we are against each
other because ultimately we're fighting for the same thing. And
if I'm mad at you one week and you're mad
at me one week, we need to figure out how
to get over it, because again, we're on the same team.
We both want we both want the trophy, and I
(39:37):
can't win without you and you can't win without me.
Speaker 1 (39:40):
I started that conversation.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
I think we both did. Honestly, Yeah, I think it was.
I mean, you know, Tony was mature in the sense
he was he was married, he was in a relationship.
He kind of knew how to navigate crazy women, right.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
So you're a crazy girl.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
I wasn't crazy, But you know, it's like we had
this respect for each other ultimately of Okay, you know
I don't I have no I don't hate you. I
really don't, because I know what goal you're trying to
get to, and I know you don't hate me because
I'm trying to help us get to that goal.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
It's just and you're also insecure and vulnerable and just
freaking like, let you know what I mean, Like you're
instead this is not your world.
Speaker 2 (40:17):
No, not at all. But you know, to Tony's credit,
he always knew that and we could always come back
to that. We're on the same team.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
Yeah that's good when so okay, So then you make
the finals and I think this, there's season eight eight.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
So look, I believe that there's some seasons where the
casts have the great camaraderie happening between the people and
the cast, and there's some that that is just not
It doesn't click as much. I would say last season,
I don't know if you've been watching the show, but
this past season they amazing. Dina did an amazing job,
so did all the other exacts like that, they had
(40:55):
great chemistry. Would you say that our season was the same.
Speaker 2 (41:00):
I feel like you are a baiting me.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Don't call me Barbara Walters.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
I'm not listen. I will say and I will say this.
I love Sean. I absolutely adore Sean. I think Sean
and I up until the final had a great relationship.
Gel and I maybe, but but it heads a little bit.
She's laughing. This is why you're a bading me. Now,
my issue, my issue personally.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
I don't even remember. Remember I was drinking back then,
you may have something different.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
He started in my mind to take it so seriously
and like he wasn't even allowed to be friends with
me anymore, you know.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
What I mean?
Speaker 2 (41:38):
I you know, before not even before the finals, probably
before two weeks before the finals, like we could talk
in the hallway between practices, and then he almost couldn't
talk to me anymore. I was the enemy, and I
don't know if Sean was the enemy.
Speaker 1 (41:50):
I don't even me is competitive, yeah, the competitive, right, but.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
I would see it happen like he's taking this is
like life or death to him, and he is I
don't know how to handle it.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
And no, I didn't know how to handle it either,
but I definitely did pull him aside and just say
like it's okay.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
And also, like you said, when people fight on camp
or when people are fighting just people are not stupid
at home, Like especially watching this past season, I can
tell when people are just not feeling each other, and
it's always at that mid season mark where you just
like want to kill each other. Yeah. But then also
with Gille, I said, look you can there's a difference
and that's when it started becoming a downhill slope because
(42:33):
we start we were getting like tens season or week
four or something, and you know, I was like, you
have to you can't, but then you also can't change anybody, right.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
Right, Yeah? No, he he was in it to win
it one hundred percent, and it was I'm not competing
against friends anymore, you know.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
So he just stopped talking to you basically.
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Yeah, And to be honest, All Stars felt very similar.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
With him where I was not his partner, so I
can't value that.
Speaker 2 (43:03):
I was like, I don't. And again I went into
All Stars with this whole like.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
No, you were full of positive energy.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
Was I was like, listen, I'm the next one out,
so it's fine, and no, he yeah, I don't. I
don't relate to personalities like that again because that's just
not how I am, and so I tend to just
be like back away, got it noted where I saw.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
And that's where Sean is like silent but deadley because
it's like, you know, she's an actual Olympian and she
was like I think that was giving her more fire.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, no.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
Okay, Well that's the end of that and that plane
ride must have been very awkward then, huh, please remind me.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
I don't remember.
Speaker 1 (43:59):
We're going to do fan questions and rapid fire so
at B I stuck at pronouncing these Instagram names at
p D monkey okay, as Wow, which partner would you
want if you weren't paired with Tony?
Speaker 2 (44:11):
Oh, that's not fair.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
Just say it. I don't.
Speaker 2 (44:14):
I really don't know.
Speaker 1 (44:16):
Na kay, let's let's to make it fair. Pick somebody
from last season.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
I would say, I'll just say Artam because I've learned
dances from Ardham before he taught me on tour, so
I would say, now I'm terrified of him and I
don't know what to say to him ever.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
But he's also silent. But Dudley, yes, wait, I have
a question before we really get into this, I forgot
to ask you, you know how Okay, So there's a
lot of like hookups on Dancing with the Stars and stuff.
Speaker 2 (44:41):
No, I did not hook up with anybody.
Speaker 1 (44:42):
I know that. We all know this. You guys wanted
to kill each other. God, that would have been some hot, passionate, intimate,
interesting things happening. No, I know that. But if you
like Okay, so one of my questions is basically like
the fact that who do you think falls in love first?
Is it the pro or is it the celebrity because
they're I mean, look, I am going to be the
first to take accountability here. Have I hooked up with
(45:04):
some people? Maybe?
Speaker 2 (45:05):
Maybe?
Speaker 1 (45:06):
But I also know this that like either you have
developed this professional relationship or it becomes this like interesting
toxic relationship in a way. But you, you and Ty
had just you guys were just dating. How did he
handle it all?
Speaker 2 (45:24):
He was fine once he knew my partner was married.
How about that first time around when we were googling
everybody and he goes, I don't want you with Derek.
I don't want you with March I don't And let's
be honest. These kids were twenty at the time.
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Okay, when I joined Dancing with the Stars, they were
they weren't they were twenty?
Speaker 2 (45:41):
They were young?
Speaker 1 (45:42):
Yes, they were, they were very young.
Speaker 2 (45:43):
Yeah. Young. But once he knew that I had a
married husband, like he married man, he's got kids, I
was like, oh, you're fine.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
But if you were doing it with Derek, then it
would have been a problem that.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
He probably would have had some jeal it not just Derek,
any any of the simple Yeah, because what Ty found
out with Dancing with the Stars is that those are
straight young men. It is It is not a world
of like, your woman is safe with these dancers. Not
that he quickly realized, Oh, they're all on the prel
(46:17):
all the time.
Speaker 1 (46:19):
Excuse me, they were. You know, you're right, you're right,
you're right. Okay, all right, tis very smart. Okay, let's
move back on to fair questions at April Chatterbox, which
routine was the hardest to learn? And why give? For me?
Speaker 2 (46:31):
Give is a very unnatural way for I'm a ballerina,
you know, well.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
You're also a cheerleader, though maybe give was good for you.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
I mean, Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders is deceiving. They're dancers, they're
not cheerleaders. I never really cheered. I didn't tumble, I
didn't do any of that. But I'm a very straight
up and down dancer. And so the thought of like,
I don't even still know where the flicks and the
kicks and all of them, I were really awkward doing jives.
Speaker 1 (46:57):
You looked amazing at missus, Sally. Why are you so
over the top with your kid's birthday parties? Left out loud.
Speaker 2 (47:05):
I know it's a problem. It's gotten worse every year too.
Speaker 1 (47:09):
You spoil them.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
They no, I decorate. If you've ever seen, like my
kitchen gets transformed into like get it, balloon heaven. They
tell me what colors they want, and I I have
just a few years left with my kids when it
comes to birthdays and stuff like that. So I'm like,
I'm gonna make the biggest still that I can. I'm
going to ruin any spouse for their future that they're
(47:31):
going to have to continue to do this. But at
your dip it and yeah, we make a big deal
about birdies here.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
I mean I didn't even know you popped out another
two kids. Like this is how out of touch I am.
And I must say I don't scroll Instagram because it's
not good for my mental health. So this first of all,
I don't know if you've seen my home freaking decor.
I think I'm like Betty Crocker over here. So so
we should get together, okay. At Paz B two seven three,
(47:59):
how did you get back with Tie after The Bachelor?
We already covered that, Yeah right, yeah, I had Kenzie
Fulcher four to one three not a question, but Melissa
is my favorite dancer that's been on the show. How sweet? Okay,
rapid fire also from the fans, Except you're going to
answer this question that I had already asked, who falls
in love first? The celebrity or the pro dancer?
Speaker 2 (48:17):
I think celebrity.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Yeah, yeah, you're right at Heidi Lane zero seven? What
was harder Dancing with the Stars or the bachelor? Dancing
with the Stars at PZB again, hey two seven three?
Who's your favorite male dancer on Dancing with the Stars
currently currently?
Speaker 2 (48:37):
Give them to me again? Who's on right now?
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Alan? Dam Alan, Sasha, Pasha Gleb.
Speaker 2 (48:46):
You know what I'm gonna say, Sasha because he can't
forgetting Sasha was my buddy on tour. We were Kashia,
I love she danced with Alison Yes? Yeah, session at
Lauren Houseworth. How many hours a day are rehearsals for
DCC versus Dancing with the Stars Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. Yeah, DCC.
I would leave my work at five, get there at six,
(49:06):
and I'd get home at midnight. Every night leather five am,
five pm, I'd leave my work. I was at work
eight to five and then I write I was practiced
from six to eleven rower work. I had to work, Yes,
had to a nine.
Speaker 1 (49:21):
To five bills, Got it? Got It sends rock my socks.
That's kind of candy. Would you ever do All Stars
two point zero? I think if they did another one,
you should be on it if you wanted.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
You know what? Ideally, I would love to. My body
is a little older now. I think there's enough young
talent to go and do another All Star season.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
But Derek said this. He did an interview recently and
he said, I think all the winners should do All Stars.
Would you would say no?
Speaker 2 (49:50):
If we're all the same age? Ish? Like? Do I
want to be competing against Hannah Brown?
Speaker 1 (49:54):
No?
Speaker 2 (49:55):
I don't like you know what I.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Mean, really competing against them?
Speaker 2 (49:58):
We know that Well, I can't move quite as much
as I.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
Have a bad back. You would be the only so
you would ruin the whole Stars would but I have.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
A bat that goes out now my back has gone
out ryl.
Speaker 1 (50:09):
You would say yes. Dina Kats would say yes.
Speaker 2 (50:12):
Well, if she told me the amount I could make
that first week again, I'm easily to change. Susan knows that.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
I love it, Okay. Was it harder to do your
first season same person or All Stars.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
First season harder?
Speaker 1 (50:27):
For sure? At adi m West did you like your
first season or All Stars better? You already answered that
you okay, And that's it, my friend. You made it.
You made it without you know blushing.
Speaker 2 (50:41):
I love you, I do.
Speaker 1 (50:43):
I love you too? Where can people find you?
Speaker 2 (50:46):
Melury Strick on Instagram? I'm still on Facebook?
Speaker 1 (50:49):
Just so you also have a podcast?
Speaker 2 (50:51):
I do have a podcast. Ty and I have one together,
logically irrational. Sorry I'm really bad about that.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
Wait, so wait, tell us more.
Speaker 2 (50:59):
We've been doing it for about six years now. We
got the idea because he and I are dorks at
night and we just watched you know, reality TV pop
culture and it's very interesting the way guys view things
and the way girls view things and the conversations that
we would have, and so we started a podcast. Like
I said, it's been six years, which is crazy, and
(51:19):
it's it's good. It's you know, it keeps me busy,
it's my income and yeah, no, it's it's.
Speaker 1 (51:26):
And it's also, how is it working with your husband? Well,
we all were.
Speaker 2 (51:30):
To work together an hour a week technically because all
get everything ready. He comes in having no idea what
we're talking about, and we record and then he goes
back to work. So it's great. It works, and you
have guests and stuff for don't do the guests now.
We just kind of cook us and we do our
our lives. We do a reality round up, he'll he
(51:51):
does this Tidbits with Ty where he tries to talk
sports to people.
Speaker 1 (51:55):
It's fun, cute chemistry, so people canbviously listen to anywhere
they listen to podcasts. Absolutely, yes, thank you, my friend.
It's so great to see your face.
Speaker 2 (52:05):
That's what I like going to congrats on everything. I
love you, I thank.
Speaker 1 (52:09):
You, I love you, Thank you so much. Happy holidays.
You make sure you guys follow us at sex Lies
and spray tands on our Instagram handle and make sure
your comment. Let me know who you want me to interview.
What do you all think? Let me know
Host
Cheryl Burke
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