Kate Gosselin feeling "mixed" about 'Dancing with the Stars' ouster

Kate Gosselin claims that she had "mixed emotions" about her Dancing with the Stars' ouster.


"I said to the other people before we walked out onto the stage, 'It needs to be me.' I accepted it at that point because I knew it was me. At the same time, my second thought was, 'Now I get to go home with the kids,'" said Gosselin during a Wednesday appearance on Good Morning America.

"I'm amazed that I lasted halfway, and it is due to my fans and viewers that believed in us."

The former Jon & Kate Plus 8 star and her professional partner Tony Dovolani became the fourth couple eliminated from Dancing with the Stars' tenth season during last night's live results show based on a combination of the judges' scores they received during Monday night's performance show and home viewer votes cast after the episode.

"I was very upset. I wanted to learn more, I wanted to do more and I wanted to have the opportunity," said Gosselin on GMA.


"At the same time, I knew it. I knew it was my day yesterday. To be very honest, I didn't want it to be the rest of the people on the season -- I wanted it to be me. They're so great and it just needed to be me. It was still sad."

Gosselin described her Dancing with the Stars' experience as a "great adventure" and added she had a lot more fun than viewers might have been led to believe.

"It was a great ride. It was exciting and, contrary to popular belief, I really enjoyed my time on Dancing with the Stars," she explained. "Tony and I had a lot of fun. I don't think you guys probably got to see a lot of that -- but we laughed a lot of times until we cried."

Dovolani, who also participated in the GMA appearance, said he's a "bit of a goofball" and that Gosselin "gets his humor."

"Unfortunately they only showed the emotional parts, but really what we had is a lot of fun," said Dovolani, who was subsequently asked if he was upset with producers for the way he was portrayed with Gosselin during coverage of the couple's practices.


"I don't think I can ever be angry at the producers because in the end it was great TV," he said. "So they picked whatever they picked -- that's why they're producers and I'm a dancer."

Gosselin also declined to blame producers for the way she was portrayed.

"The truth of the matter is I'm very real, and I can't walk into a dance studio and practice and put on an act that I'm not really living," she said. "So if I was exhausted, if I was stressed, if I was tired, if I was scared -- whatever -- that's what you saw."

One of the more heated exchanges between the couple came earlier in the competition when he threatened to quit after she questioned his teaching methods.

"My dad always told me to always take a breath and take a walk before you speak because you might regret what you say. That was probably about a five second weak moment that I had and maybe I shouldn't have spoken," said Dovolani on GMA.


"It's definitely a great example for my kids to see that they shouldn't speak when they're angry, and that's what happened then."

Gosselin described the situation as "a moment where the pressure was rising."

"We knew we had to lift our game big time. We walked in there, we're both tired. It's just a lack of communication, or I was communicating one way and he was communicating another way. It was literally like a five minute period of time," she said. "From that, we just went forward. I think he knew better how to teach me and I figured out better how to just shut up and learn."

Dovolani reiterated that moment should not define his Dancing with the Stars journey with Gosselin.

"That so does not describe our ride," he said. "If people get hung up on that moment than they missed the entire journey of Kate learning how to dance."


Gosselin's Dancing with the Stars' appearance coincided with her ex-husband Jon Gosselin filing a request for primary physical custody of their eight kids after his lawyer previously called her an "absentee mom" due to her participation on the show.

"Are you afraid you're going to lose custody?" asked GMA anchor George Stephanopoulos.

"No. Not at all," replied Kate.

"It's just to see that stuff going through the legal system. I feel of all the things that Jon and I did well, we divided the kids between us very peacefully and did it amongst ourselves. So when that stuff started coming through, it was just like, 'Oh my gosh.' To even read this stuff was so hard and trying to me. I just got through all that legal stuff and into 2010 I felt like life was brand new, life was starting over, life was exciting and great for the kids and I. So it was just really difficult to have to step back a couple of steps and then dance six hours a day."

In addition, Kate described Jon's filing as "very scary" and said it was "emotionally very hard and very draining."


"She was a different Kate from hour to hour depending on what was coming through her emails," added Dovolani.

Kate said that Jon's filing really put her Dancing with the Stars experience into perspective.

"I remember telling Tony at one point, not to be disrespectful, but my kids come first and their future is uncertain right now," she explained. "Dancing kind of feels like... so... I don't want to use the word unimportant. But it felt like second place at that time."

"As it should be with family," added Dovolani. "That was one of the reasons we were practicing in her basement."

Kate said he kids loved to watch he perform on the show, however she added it was "very hard for them to hear what the judges were saying."

"It got to the point where I would allow them to watch me to dance but then they weren't allowed to watch the judges' comments because -- Kara and Madie especially -- got very hung up in what they said and it was hard for them to hear negative things about me," she said.


"Of course, in their eyes, I was the best dancer."

Kate added her kids still didn't know she had been eliminated.

"They were asleep by the time I got back last night," she said. "So I'll tell them this morning. I did not allow them to watch the show last night."

Before Dancing with the Stars began, Kate had appeared on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live and boasted how she was confident that she could win.  She subsequently appeared on Kimmel again last night after her ouster.

"Were you surprised to be eliminated tonight? Are you surprised to be here?" asked Kimmel.

"I'm not surprised," she answered.


"You're not surprised. That's why I'm confused, because when you came out here..." said Kimmel before being cut off by Kate.

"I knew you were going to bring that up," she interjected.

"You had the eye of the tiger!" he continued. "You said, 'I'm winning this thing. I'm going to win this thing. I guarantee it.' At that time did you believe that, or were you just playing around?"

"I always believe what I say, but then that dancing stuff started," she replied sheepishly.






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