Whitney Leavitt, star of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, has shared the emotional impact of her recent elimination from Dancing With the Stars. In a tearful video, she said leaving the show “genuinely feels like a breakup,” describing the sudden halt to her daily rehearsals and friendships as a difficult adjustment. Her exit from the semifinals came amid high scores and a growing controversy over the show’s voting system, with fans alleging some viewers used fake emails to cast hundreds of votes.
Leavitt and her professional partner, Mark Ballas, were eliminated on November 18 after the Prince-themed semifinal night. Despite consistently earning high judges’ scores, the pair had a gut feeling their time was up. “We knew, we felt it,” Ballas told E! News. “I think we just had a feeling”. Leavitt agreed, saying, “We had a gut feeling it was us”.
The Emotional Impact of a Sudden Stop
In a candid Instagram video posted on November 20, a makeup-free Leavitt opened up about the struggle of transitioning out of the intense DWTS schedule. She described a routine of spending hours every single day with her partner, the crew, and other contestants, which then stopped abruptly.
“It feels like I’m going through withdrawals right now,” she shared. “Today just felt so weird. It felt so weird not going into the studio and meeting with Mark and learning a dance. It just felt weird, and it made me sad”.
She likened the deep connections formed on the show to a personal relationship ending. “You grow real friendships and, like, real connections with these people, and you learn so much about yourself and people uplift you constantly, and you challenge yourself, you just feel so loved”. On stage immediately after her elimination was announced, Leavitt expressed gratitude, telling the audience, “I already feel like a winner… This show has meant the absolute world for me. It’s changed my life”.
A High-Scoring Exit Amid Voting Controversy
Leavitt and Ballas’s elimination was considered a shock by many because they were strong performers. On the semifinal night, they earned a 29 out of 30 for both of their Prince-themed dances: a cha-cha to “1999” and a Viennese waltz to “Slow Love”. This gave them a combined score of 58, tying them for second place on the night’s leaderboard.
Their exit meant the season 34 finale on November 25 featured an unusually large group of five couples: Alix Earle and Val Chmerkovskiy, Robert Irwin and Witney Carson, Dylan Efron and Daniella Karagach, Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten, and Jordan Chiles and Ezra Sosa. The elimination also occurred as significant online debate erupted about the fairness of the show’s voting process.
Just days before the finale, a TikTok user shared screenshots alleging that fans of certain celebrities were manipulating the system. The viral post claimed one fan used 17 different email addresses to submit 220 votes for social media star Alix Earle during the semifinals. The message also alleged that fans of wildlife presenter Robert Irwin were employing similar tactics.
The show’s rules allow 10 votes per couple per voting method (online or text), but there is no stated rule against using multiple email addresses. The allegations led to widespread discussion among fans on TikTok and Reddit, with many calling for the voting system to be changed for future seasons. Some suggested limiting votes by IP address or phone number to prevent manipulation.
How the DWTS Voting System Works
The controversy put a spotlight on the mechanics of Dancing With the Stars eliminations. Showrunner Conrad Green explained that the outcome is a 50/50 split between viewer votes and judges’ scores. The system uses a ranking points method: the couple with the highest judges’ score gets 5 ranking points, second gets 4, and so on. The same ranking is applied to the public vote tally.
These two sets of ranking points are added together, and the couple with the lowest combined total is eliminated. In a tie, the couple with the fewest public votes goes home. Green also explained why the show does not reveal exact voting numbers, stating that disclosing them could “disincentivize people taking part or might affect the votes going forward”.
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Life After the Ballroom
Despite her sadness, Leavitt looks back on her DWTS journey as a positive, life-changing experience. Her participation was a major motivator for her return to The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives for its third season. Since her elimination, she and Mark Ballas premiered the freestyle dance they never got to perform on the show. They showcased it on the Call Her Daddy podcast on November 26, with special permission from ABC.
The performance, set to a mashup of Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” and the Secret Lives of Mormon Wives theme, received high praise. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba left a lengthy comment on Ballas’s Instagram post, calling the dance “absolute brilliance”. Inaba also addressed online accusations of favoritism that followed the pair during the season, stating, “It broke my heart to read some of the comments. When people kept saying there was favoritism, I got very upset because that diminishes what you both had worked so hard for”.
Professionally, Leavitt is moving forward. She has landed a role on Broadway, following in the footsteps of former DWTS contestant Ariana Madix. Leavitt will take on the role of Roxie Hart in the long-running musical Chicago.
The five couples who advanced competed in the three-hour season finale on Tuesday, November 25, for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.
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