Ally Brooke opened up about a devastating moment while competing on Dancing with the Stars in 2019.
The Fifth Harmony alum invited her former DWTS partner Sasha Farber for the June 2 episode of her YouTube series, The Ally Brooke Show. The pair recalled standing in the bottom two with Dawson’s Creek alum James Van Der Beek and his partner, Sasha’s wife, Emma Slater.
After the judges panel decided unanimously to save Ally and Sasha, Ally begged hosts Tom Bergeron and Erin Andrews to give her spot to James and Emma. Ally sobbed as Tom tried to explain that couldn’t be done. (Watch the GMA report on the emotional moment HERE)
What made the moment so devastating for Ally: James shared that his wife lost their baby just that week, and that she urged James to dance anyway. After James’ gut wrenching video package, he and Emma dances a beautiful waltz.
“My wife is crying, James was crying, you’re crying. I was crying…”
“He nearly didn’t dance the semifinals due to a family issue,” Sasha recalled. “It was just hard. It was hard to process because it was us in the bottom two and we made it and they didn’t. I remember at one point you [Ally] were like, ‘No, no, no, I want to give my position away to James.’ And I was like standing there. My wife is crying, James was crying, you’re crying. I was crying… You know, it’s crazy. This is just a TV show, it’s just a dance show, but people build such strong bonds.”
Ally felt James not only danced well throughout the competition, but he managed to perform even though he and his wife, Kimberly Van Der Beek, were in the middle of suffering a devastating loss.
“It was horrible,” Ally remembered. “And especially the week he had—the devastation of losing a baby—him having the strength to still go on the show and perform and dance. To me, it just did not make sense. I’m like, ‘This does not make sense. There’s no way. I know America is rooting for him and voted for him.’ It was just a bunch of mixed emotions…He was the one to watch during the season because he always performed beautifully.”
After James was eliminated, Ally wanted to quit the show
“I just remember after the show I wanted to quit,” she revealed. “I want to give this to James. I don’t want to be here. I was done. It was such an emotional punching bag for me and then on top of that I got a lot of hate because the judges saved me.”
“You don’t understand how much that can destroy someone,” Ally continued. “That destroyed me and it took me back to the really bad space where I was after X-Factor. My audition aired and I got so much hate there and that tore me apart. And then [it] also brought back a lot of memories of getting online hate for like, you know, my body or my dancing in Fifth Harmony. I just felt like man, I can’t take this.”
Ally remains friends with James, calling him a “remarkable soul” that “helped give her advice,” she said that whole experience still haunts her to this day.
“I’m still mad about that,” she admitted. “I still think he should’ve been in the finals.”
