Amanda Kloots’ Dancing with the Stars experience doesn’t seem to have been as fun as she hoped it would be.
Kloots, 42, reflected on her experience on season 30 of the hit show on the Nov. 19 episode of Harry Jowsey’s podcast Boyfriend Material, where she admitted that her partner Alan Bersten was “very mean to me.”
“I helped him become a nicer person… in teaching,” she told Jowsey, who competed last season with first-time pro Rylee Arnold.
Kloots thought that Bersten’s experience “growing up Russian, growing up in that Russian dance atmosphere” made him extra hard on her — but it was also because she knew she was good.
“He did see a lot of potential in me and he saw that we could possibly win this thing. And I think when a pro has a star that has that potential, they can get very mean because they’re like, I could win, I wanna win.”
“I got yelled at,” she continued to allege. “And the thing is like — I wanted to be good. I wanted to learn. I watched that show for 29 seasons before I got on it, so I was so excited to be there. I wanted to do well. I’m a dancer.”
Kloots claimed Bersten “would push me” during rehearsals and she felt like the show “would just want me to have a breakdown or something, but I knew if I had a breakdown, the producers would come in, wanna do an OTF, and then we would lose an hour of our rehearsal time.”
“So I would just keep it bottled up and we would just be like dancing and I would just be like raging inside,” she told Jowsey.
Though Bersten “could get mean,” Kloots said they “had a blast too,” and when asked if she would ever return to the ballroom, she said, “I would go back on in a heartbeat.”
“I’d do it for free,” she continued. “Every year I’m like, is it all-star season yet? But yeah, I loved it.”
In 2021, Bersten addressed their tense moments in rehearsals, telling US Weekly, “I only have the best intentions. I’m very passionate, not only about me but also Amanda… it’s not just a dancing show anymore, we’re friends, we’re family.”
“I want her to come out here and feel special,” he added.
Kloots and Jowsey, 27, also weighed in on who they think will take home the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy this season, with Kloots predicting Chandler Kinney while Jowsey predicted Joey Graziadei.
“I think it’ll be down to those two,” Kloots agreed.
The season 33 finale of Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesday, Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+.