Ilona Maher broke down into tears after she ‘messed up’ on Dancing with the Stars leaving many devastated fans to come to her aid on social media.
On Tuesday, the 28-year-old rugby player’s eyes welled up with tears for ‘making mistakes’ during her jive routine on the competition show’s Hair Metal night.
During her and her dance partner Alan Bersten’s jive routine to Quiet Riot’s song Cum On Feel the Noize, judge Carrie Ann Inaba said she noticed Maher got off tempo at one point but noted that recovering from that is ‘hard.’
Even though the judges deducted points from her score, they were supportive of Maher and even applauded her for being ’emotional’ as it meant she was that ‘invested.’
Many heartbroken fans reacted to Ilona’s emotional appearance on TV with messages of support on X (formally Twitter) including one who wrote: ‘Ilona being upset at herself is actually and utterly breaking my heart! We love you girly [red heart emoji]’
Meanwhile, Bersten consoled her and gave her a hug as he reassured her and told her that her performance was ‘amazing.’
In addition to Inaba, judges Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough also shared the same critiques but also was compassionate towards Maher.
On her performance, Tonioli said: ‘I love wild and wonderful, and I love to embrace it. But I’m sorry, my darling, you went wrong so many times.
‘I appreciate that, but this is a dance competition very well,’ he continued. ‘Everyone has to be treated equally, and if you make mistakes, you have points deducted. It takes nothing away from what you did. The attitude was perfect.’
The Olympic medalist nodded but tears started to well up in her eyes.
When Inaba checked on her, Maher jokingly replied that she’s ‘been better.’
‘I saw you get a little teared up,’ Inaba said. ‘And I just want to say, like, as a woman, I like that because you’re so emotional. You’re so invested.’
Inaba continued to reassure Maher: ‘That’s why everybody’s rooting for you. That’s why we love watching you.’
The judge said that getting back a beat can be ‘hard’ and told her: ‘You are amazing!’
Hough also comforted Maher by making comparisons to her medal-winning, athletic career.
‘You’re a competitor,’ he said. ‘When things go wrong on the field, you sort of regroup and come back next week, and you come up strong.’
Reassuring her, he added: ‘Just take this as a moment, to be like, “Hey, I was a little off time.”
He continued, ‘I have no doubt [you will] come back and be fantastic.’
Then, when Maher and Bersten went to talk to Julianne Hough, she confessed why she teared up.
‘This was a really tough dance for me, and this whole week’s been really tough,’ she told the pro dancer.
‘And you do it so well in dress rehearsal, and then you come out and you mess it up. So it’s really hard.’
Maher said that her partner is ‘so good,’ and for that reason, she felt like she let him down.
The athlete said Bersten ‘knows I can do well and then I just don’t.’
Then, in a heartwarming moment, Bersten embraced her and reassured her that she was ‘amazing,’ to which Julianne agreed and also gave Maher a hug.
The pair ended up with a score of 26 out of 40 and survived the double elimination.
Dancing with the Stars airs on Tuesdays on ABC and Disney+. Episodes are available to stream the next day on Hulu.