Charity Lawson has revealed that she was bullied and even received death threats while competing on Dancing with the Stars, and she apparently believes her race affected the outcome of her season.
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Charity opened up about how her time on Dancing with the Stars really tested her mental health during an appearance on the July 29 episode of the "Sex, Lies and Spray Tans" podcast, which is hosted by Cheryl Burke.
As a therapist, Charity admitted she was "surprised" that Dancing with the Stars doesn't have a therapist on the set, supporting its contestants and professional partners.
"Honestly, I'm very surprised, because quite literally, while Dancing with the Stars was great, I literally went through hell and back with my mental health on that show," Charity confessed to Cheryl, who retired from the ABC reality dancing competition late last year.
The Bachelor alum shared how many viewers had bullied her and the backlash "hit me like a ton of bricks."
Cheryl acknowledged she was "shocked" to hear that people had trolled Charity, but Charity -- who had also appeared on Zach Shallcross' The Bachelor season -- apparently saw the hate coming.
"Is it shocking? I don't know if it's shocking. I think to a certain degree it was expected," Charity shared.
Charity, however, admitted she initially thought Dancing with the Stars criticism wasn't going to be as severe as what she had experienced with The Bachelor franchise.
"Coming off The Bachelorette, I was like, 'I can handle it.' We know The Bachelor is very conservative and [trolls] go in guns blazing and can be very harsh. So after The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, I was like, 'I'm good,'" Charity noted.
"And then I came into the Dancing with the Stars fanbase, like, 'This is going to be a piece of cake,' only to [get] almost to the point where it was so much worse than Bachelor and Bachelorette."
Charity elaborated, "It was to the point where I was getting death threats for existing. [I got hate] for not performing enough, for being conceited, for being entitled, for being the biggest b-tch on the cast. It's crazy! This is the first time I'm openly talking about it."
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Charity said people had attacked her in comments across her social-media platforms as well as on Dancing with the Stars' official page.
"But the pros didn't know. Nobody knew what was going on," Charity told Cheryl, adding, "It was so damaging -- night in, night out. It was awful... I blocked and filtered my stuff."
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When asked if Dancing with the Stars had blocked offensive comments about Charity, The Bachelorette alum replied, "Of course not."
The negativity and racism got so bad, according to Charity, that she felt the need to inform Artem about what was being said, and then the pair raised the issue to Dancing with the Stars executives.
"I had to tell Artem, 'This is unfortunately what we're dealing with and what we're up against. If you look and compare us to every other Dancing with the Stars contestant [this season], they don't have this underneath their comments... I'm just literally existing and being called a b-tch," Charity recalled.
Not only was Charity criticized for being arrogant and entitled, but she was also knocked for having a bad attitude.
"It was so insane to see, and I didn't understand," Charity admitted. "I was like, 'I don't know how to navigate this.'"
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Charity began to cry during her conversation with Cheryl, explaining how there's a "difference" of how she "goes through this life as a Black woman and being on a reality TV show."
Charity noted, "It's like the same things are just not protected."
Cheryl expressed how it was wrong of Dancing with the Stars not to protect Charity, and The Bachelor alum shared how she "had to suppress" all of this hurt and chaos during her time on the show.
"It honestly got to the point where I was like, I'm just trying to survive. I'm just trying to make it out of the season,'" Charity said through tears, adding, "God forbid someone else has to go through this."
She continued, "There were weeks where I'd come home from rehearsal and I was like, 'I literally hope I forget my steps and get voted off.'"
Charity admitted she was "in a really dark place" during Dancing with the Stars as a result; however, she knew it would be worse to give up and quit.
"I'm grateful that I stuck it out, but to be crucified for just existing on the show..." Charity lamented.
At the end of the podcast episode, Charity was asked if she felt her race affected the outcome of her Dancing with the Stars season, to which she simply responded, "Yeah."
Earlier this month, Charity opened up on the "Trading Secrets" podcast about how she was "frustrated" over the Dancing with the Stars' judges' comments during her season as well.
"Obviously, the first few weeks, they wanted to see more and they were pushing me to [show] more," Charity lamented to The Bachelorette alum Jason Tartick.
"But then when it got to the point where I was getting the consistent comment the whole season, I was [like], 'Literally, what am I doing wrong?'"
RELATED LINK: 'DANCING WITH THE STARS' PROS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS: WHO'S DATING OR MARRIED TO WHOM!? (PHOTOS)
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"It was really hard. It was really challenging for me. I think I was afraid, 'I'm not doing it right,' and no one was really leading me," Charity complained at the time.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
