Charity Lawson, the former Bachelorette star who competed in the last season of Dancing with the Stars has broken her silence on the "hell" she went through on social media because of her race.
Charity was partnered with Artem Chigvintsev and the pair came fourth, however Charity has now revealed that her mental health suffered terribly as she received death threats online from so-called fans of the ABC show.
"I’m surprised you guys don’t [have a therapist for contestants]," Charity told former professional Cheryl Burke on her podcast Sex, Lies and Spray Tans. "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 in that show. It hit me like a ton of bricks."
© Andrew EcclesCharity went on to share that after the criticism she receive during her time on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette she thought Dancing with the Stars would be a "piece of cake" but instead she began "getting death threats for existing… for not performing enough, for being conceited, for being entitled, for being the biggest [expletive] on the cast".
The reality star added that she blocked and filtered certain words on her social media pages, but claimed that ABC's social media teams never filtered the comments, and alleged that Artem went to show executives to try to help.
© Eric McCandless"I had to tell Artem, 'this is unfortunately what we’re dealing with and what we’re up against.' If you look in comparison to every other contestant on this season, they don’t have this underneath their comments… I’m just literally existing and being called a [expletive]," Charity said.
Breaking down in years, the 28-year-old said that as a Black woman on TV "the same things are just not protected".
"I just had to suppress it and it 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.' There were weeks where I’d come home from rehearsal where I would literally hope I [would] forget my steps and get voted off. It’s a really dark place," she admitted.
© ABCMarvel star Xochitl Gomez won Dancing with the Stars season 32 after scoring two perfect 30s for each of her final dances. Xochitl beat out fellow finalists Alyson Hannigan, Ariana Madix, Charity, and Jason Mraz.
Charity's tango with Artem received a 29 out of 30 while their second dance of the evening, a freestyle routine, saw Charity and Artem incorporating cheerleading into their routine, and receiving a 30 out of 30.
HELLO! has reached out to ABC for comment.
