Anna Delvey’s “Dancing With the Stars” partner, Ezra Sosa, revealed the “fake heiress” had a hard time dealing with backlash over her casting on the show.
In a TikTok video shared Monday, the professional dancer thanked fans for showing him so much “love” after his Week 1 debut — only to reveal that Delvey wasn’t met with the same support.
“On my end, I was feeling so much positivity, but on my partner’s end, she wasn’t receiving the same,” Sosa said.
“I think the hardest part of my day [was], after our press line, she was reading the comments and then we couldn’t find her,” he continued, while wiping away tears. “They finally found her in the bathroom and she was crying.”
Sosa said he had “never seen” Delvey show so much emotion and it “broke [his] heart.”
“As her partner, I want to just give her the best experience she could possibly could [have],” he continued. “And knowing that that’s not the case, it really did break my heart.
Delvey — born Anna Sorokin — spent time in prison for posing as a fake German heiress and tricking wealth people, banks and businesses out of more than $250,000.
Although Sosa admitted what Delvey did was “controversial” and “not right,” he asked fans to give her a “second chance.”
“I can never justify that for her or anyone in her life,” he said. “But it is really hard because this person that I am truly falling in love with every single day in rehearsal isn’t the person that everyone sees in the media.”
“No one deserves the amount of hate she is getting right now,” he added.
Sosa ended the video by praising the convicted fraudster for “stepping up to the plate” and told fans he “cannot wait” for them to see how much she has “improved” for Week 2.
Delvey sparked backlash last month after she was announced as one of the contestants on Season 33 of the hit dance competition series, with many fans questioning why ABC was giving a criminal a platform.
Delvey — who wore a blinged-out ankle monitor — danced a cha cha to “Espresso” by Sabrina Carpenter during last week’s premiere night. The dance earned her a combined score of 18/30 from the judges.
At the end of Delvey’s performance, judge Carrie Ann Inaba addressed the criticism of her casting.
She told viewers that although they may not agree with her being on the show, to at least “give her a chance” as she’s working just as hard as fellow competitors in rehearsals each week.
Although longtime “DWTS” pro Cheryl Burke “agreed” with Inaba’s comments, she admitted that some people “may have thought it was a little inappropriate” during an exclusive interview with Page Six.
Burke also criticized the show’s decision to make Delvey perform last out of all the couples, which she said sucked the energy from the room.
“To end like that after such a high… because the show just continued to get better and better [until then]“ she argued.
Burke also noted that Delvey needs to let down some walls and show her “vulnerability” if she wants to make it far in the competition.
