Things between Secret Lives of Mormon Wives costars and recent Dancing With the Stars competitors Whitney Leavitt and Jen Affleck are “not great,” Leavitt says, but she harbors no ill will toward her castmate.
Many viewers came away with just the opposite conclusion after Affleck’s elimination on the seventh week of DWTS season 34, which crowned wildlife conservationist Robert Irwin as its winner on Tuesday. Moments after cohost Julianne Hough called Affleck and her pro partner Jan Ravnik’s names, the cameras cut to Leavitt, who appeared to smile before immediately covering her expression with her hand.
In the wake of Leavitt’s reaction going viral, leading to a wave of fan speculation that Affleck herself even weighed in on, Leavitt finally shared the thought process behind her quick reaction.
“I thought I was getting eliminated every Tuesday. Every single Tuesday, I was like mentally preparing myself,” she revealed on Wednesday’s new episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast.
“In that moment, I felt two emotions. It was one where it was like, ‘Oh my God, they didn’t call my name’, but [also], ‘Oh my God, now my friend is going home.’ Like, two emotions in that moment. I think you know it’s a relief and then it’s like, ‘Oh wait, but now somebody’s going home,'” Leavitt explained.
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“It’s funny, I don’t remember smiling, but if anything, it was relief, like, ‘Oh, they didn’t call my name, I get to this one more week, but oh, now somebody has to go home. I hate that they don’t get to experience this anymore,'” Leavitt continued.
Given the pair’s not-always-amicable history on the Hulu reality series, and Affleck stating that “there is no relationship” between herself and Leavitt after her departure, speculation over the true nature of their supposed beef has not died down since Affleck’s elimination on Halloween Night.
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Leavitt did not sugarcoat the current status of their friendship, noting, “The relationship’s not great. I don’t really even know if there is one right now. There was a lot that happened while we were doing Dancing With the Stars. We were also filming Secret Lives during that time… feelings were hurt on both sides, and there wasn’t a mutual understanding, but I can tell you what I didn’t do: I didn’t go online and say, ‘I’m not supporting you, and I’m not rooting for you.’ Yeah, it just sucked.”
The reality star is referring to Affleck taking to a TikTok live after her elimination to tell her followers, “I would be rooting for a former MomTok person, but we won’t be getting into that.”
Leavitt clarified she felt “no excitement whatsoever” when Affleck was eliminated.
“There’s never excitement when anyone gets eliminated. But there’s definitely relief when they don’t call your name… I even experienced [it]. Everybody comes, and they hug me. Like, of course they were all relieved that they made it to the final and then it wasn’t them, but then they’re also sad because somebody has to go home.”
Leavitt made it all the way to the semifinals before she and pro partner Mark Ballas were sent packing. That left wildlife conservationist and eventual winner Robert Irwin, Olympian Jordan Chiles, influencer Alix Earle, content creator Dylan Efron, and actress Elaine Hendrix to advance to the grand finale.
That elimination proved to be controversial, too, with some believing the premiere of Secret Lives season 3 between the semifinals and finale of DWTS turned the dancing fandom against Leavitt. Her season 34 castmate Andy Richter is one of those believers, telling Entertainment Weekly last week, “I think Whitney going home, to me it’s absolutely insane. I mean, she’s an amazing dancer. And if all the sticklers who were furious about me still being in it, who were demanding perfect technical dancing, I don’t know why she would get sent home under that criterion.”
You can watch Leavitt’s full interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast above.