NEED TO KNOW
Hilaria Baldwin is clearing the air about her Dancing with the Stars journey and how it all came to be.
The contestant, 41, detailed on a new episode of Amanda Hirsch’s Not Skinny But Not Fat podcast on how her inclusion on the show happened, denying DWTS co-host Julianne Hough’s recent claim about how it all came to be.
Hough, during a Sept. 5 episode of Chicks in the Office, said that Baldwin was “campaigning” on social media to get on DWTS. However, Baldwin now says that wasn’t the case.
“I heard from Julianne Hough that you manifested this, like you made it,” Hirsch said during the Tuesday, Oct. 7 episode of Not Skinny But Not Fat, before Baldwin cut in.
“I love Julianne,” she said. “I don’t know where she got that from. I loved it. Because I saw that too, and I was like, ‘That’s not how it happened.’ But I love that story, I actually love that story. I wish I had manifested it… I guess it depends on which way you look at it.”
Eric McCandless/Disney
Hough, co-host of DWTS, previously said that Baldwin “was campaigning and she got on,” referring to her recent social media dancing clips.
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Baldwin, who previously shut down the reasoning while speaking with Page Six, revealed how she got the call in her latest podcast interview.
“So I’m new to TikTok. I’m brand new to TikTok. And I’m trying to figure it out. There’s a lot of dancing and lip-syncing… I started doing the trends and some of them are samba trends. And I danced a million years ago. And people start writing to me, ‘You should be on Dancing with the Stars, you should be on Dancing with the Stars,'” Baldwin recalled.
“Because I danced before. My connection with ballroom is a little painful because I broke my hip and I didn’t ever dance again,” she added. “So I’m always a fan of the show, I get excited to kind of see it, but I haven’t really focused on who the contestants are. And I didn’t realize that they let dancers on the show. So I always thought this thing like, ‘I can’t do this show, that’s not the right fit for me, it’s people who’ve never danced before.'”
Still, in late August, Baldwin got a call from the show “out of the blue.” At first, she said she wasn’t too sure. Then, a “few days later,” she was “on a plane,” she told Hirsch.
Now three weeks into her DWTS journey alongside dance partner Gleb Savchenko, Baldwin is very much part of the show. On the Sept. 30 taping, Baldwin and Savchenko, 42, performed a samba to “Shake it to the Max.” And while it was their highest score yet in the competition, Savchenko admitted to PEOPLE after the taping that he thought they deserved higher.
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“I am super proud of you,” he told Baldwin. “I think you totally delivered a great dance. I think you executed every single move. I am not so happy about the scores, but we got our first 8, so that’s exciting. And that first 8 came from Derek [Hough], and I think that speaks value, a lot of value.”
“Derek is an amazing, amazing dancer,” Baldwin added, as Savchenko chimed in: “And you’re the hardest worker in the room. You’re a superhero in the dance studio. I love how much you put so much passion and love, and you’re truly inspirational.”
Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and simulcast on Disney+. The show streams the next day on Hulu.
