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Louise Thomas
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Infamous fraudster Anna Delvey has slammed Dancing with the Stars, accusing the dance competition series of “exploiting me for attention.”
Delvey, 33, briefly competed on the ABC series – America’s version of the UK’s Strictly Come Dancing – before she and her professional dance partner Ezra Sousa were sent home in week two’s double elimination.
The ex-con has since spoken out against the show, telling NBC News in an email: “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.
“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.”
The Independent has contacted ABC for comment.
DWTS faced backlash earlier this month when it was announced that Delvey would be competing in its new season 33.
Following the season premiere, Delvey’s dance partner Sousa recalled finding her in the bathroom crying due to the amount of hate she received online.
“I think the hardest part of my day after [the] press line, she was reading the comments and we couldn’t find her,” he explained in a TikTok video. “They finally found her in the bathroom. She was crying. I’ve never seen her like that, and it broke my heart.
“As her partner, I wanted to give her the best experience she possibly could, and knowing that that’s not the case, it really did break my heart.”
After her early elimination, the Russian-born con artist, who was convicted of grand larceny and other charges in 2019, gave a blunt one-word response when asked by co-host Julianne Hough what she would take away from her time on the series.
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“Nothing,” Delvey replied.
Her response has since been labeled “dismissive” by the show’s judge Carrie Ann Inaba.
During a recent appearance on fellow DWTS contestant Tori Spelling’s misSPELLING podcast, Delvey addressed her viral remark, explaining she made the comment because it “was the truth.”
“[The judges] told me what I’m supposed to do. I tried to do it and then I still was rejected. And, I’m taking away nothing. This is what I’m taking away from it, because your advice was worthless,” she said.
“The advice did not pay off for me, even though I tried to follow it. And this is how I felt,” Delvey continued. “I know... people were trying to interpret my answer in different ways, but no, not really. I really did not take away much from this experience.”
Delvey became famous for her crimes of swindling banks, hotels and individuals out of more than $200,000. In 2022, she became the subject of Netflix’s hit mini-series Inventing Anna, which starred Julia Garner and centered on Delvey’s case and trial.
