Kate Flannery is recalling some behind-the-scenes drama from her stint on Dancing With the Stars.
“I was the oldest [celebrity cast member on season 28] … and I was actually doing pretty well, but everybody else was in their twenties,” the Office alum, 60, said during a Sunday, September 29, appearance on former DWTS pro Cheryl Burke’s “Sex, Lies and Spray Tans” podcast. “And I remember some of the women would give me a dirty look in the ladies’ room. And I’m like, ‘You’re in your 20s! Work harder! Are you crazy?’”
Burke, 40, replied “ew” and then asked for clarification.
“They would give you dirty looks because you got a higher score than them as if it’s in your control?” she asked.
Flannery replied, “Well, everybody’s competitive, you know, whatever. Some of it was, like, as a joke, but I’m like, ‘Yeah, no, you’re not kidding. Your comedy sucks, your thinly veiled comedy.’”
Burke also asked Flannery to remind her who else was in the cast of the 2019 season. Flannery named Bachelor Nation’s Hannah Brown and singer-songwriter Lauren Alaina, although she did not specify who allegedly gave her the dirty looks.
The Supremes’ Mary Wilson was actually the oldest woman in the season 28 cast, but she was eliminated first. Flannery, meanwhile, placed seventh alongside partner Pasha Pashkov. She told Burke that she initially wasn’t sure about appearing on the competition series.
“I remember on paper I was like, ‘Dancing With the Stars? I’m too cool for that crap,’” she admitted. “And then when I realized what it was, what they’re actually asking of you, [I changed my mind]. And my sister had just passed away.”
Flannery shared that her sister Nancy, who died in June 2019 after a battle with cancer, wanted a dance party at her funeral.
“For some reason, that didn’t happen at the funeral,” Flannery said, noting that her sister’s request made her rethink DWTS. “Maybe I got the dance party.”
In the wake of her sister’s death, Flannery said she was “so vulnerable initially” on DWTS and felt “so grateful” to be partnered with Pashkov, 38.
“He just made all the difference,” she said. “I just think he’s a very evolved soul.”
Flannery then praised Pashkov and his wife and fellow DWTS pro, Daniella Karagach, for not making the show the center of their lives.
“They understand it’s just part of their life, it’s not their life,” she said, noting that for some other pros, “This is their life, and they’re holding on for dear life.” Burke, who retired from DWTS after season 31 in 2022, admitted, “I was one of them.”
Burke said during an April appearance on Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes’ podcast that leaving DWTS was harder than her 2022 divorce from Matthew Lawrence.
“I credit [DWTS] for giving me a voice in general,” she explained. “I never thought I could ever be my own independent woman back then. I think coming into my own and being able to stand on my own two feet, I credit Dancing With the Stars for that.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ simultaneously Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET. You can stream episodes on Disney+ the next day.
