Anna Delvey wasn’t about to hide her frustration.
The infamous “fake heiress” didn’t hold back when expressing her disappointment about her short stint on Dancing With the Stars, following her elimination in the first round.
“I feel that the show so obviously used me to drive up the ratings, that they never had any plans to give me any chance to grow and only cared about exploiting me for attention,” Anna wrote in an email to NBC News. “It was predatory of them to try [to] make me feel inadequate and stupid all while I did get progressively better yet they chose to disregard that.”
This isn’t the first time Anna has spoken candidly about her brief experience on the show. She and fellow contestant Tori Spelling, along with their pro partners Ezra Sosa and Pasha Pashkov, were both eliminated during the September 24 episode. Following her exit, the 33-year-old defended a now-viral remark in which she claimed she took away “nothing” from the show.
“You guys told me what I’m supposed to do,” she said, addressing the DWTS producers during a September 28 appearance on Tori’s MisSPELLING podcast. “I tried to do it, and then I still was rejected. I’m taking away nothing. This is what I’m taking away from it because your advice was worthless.”
Anna, whose conviction for grand larceny and theft of services after defrauding wealthy individuals and businesses sparked controversy over her casting, expressed that the experience wasn’t worth it after being cut so early.
“It felt like they put so much effort into getting me on the show, making me feel comfortable, just to eliminate me this early,” she added. “It just felt a bit upsetting to me. It felt like a waste of time for me to do all of this for them to just discard me so easily.”
Meanwhile, Tori Spelling also expressed surprise at her elimination on her podcast, and her estranged husband Dean McDermott shared similar thoughts.
“I actually thought Dancing With the Stars was a dance competition and not a popularity contest, but it’s not the first time I’ve been wrong,” Dean said in a September 26 Instagram video. “You did a great job. I think you should still be on the show. But that’s just me. I’m biased. So proud of you. Keep kicking ass, Tori. You’re awesome.”
Though both Anna and Tori have exited the dance floor, the competition continues. Keep reading to find out who’s still in the running for this season’s Mirrorball Trophy.
