Not ready to say goodbye? Carrie Ann Inaba opened up about her shocking reaction to James Van Der Beek’s elimination from Dancing With the Stars after the Dawson’s Creek alum revealed on Monday, November 18, that his wife, Kimberly, suffered a miscarriage.
“It was heartbreaking,” Inaba, 51, said on The Talk on Tuesday, November 19. “I went home and I vomited.”
Inaba held back tears as she explained in detail how challenging it was “as a human being” to send the fan-favorite home after experiencing a family tragedy. However, she acknowledged that her job is to make tough decisions about who is best suited to move forward within the final weeks of competition.
“I have so much sadness in my heart for them, and my prayers are with them,” she shared. “But, you know, this is when it’s really hard. As a judge, I have to judge the dance. I know on Dancing With the Stars we show their stories and we get to know them, and they become family, and their pain is my pain.”
Inaba continued, “But at the same time, it’s like in the Olympics — if something happens to somebody before they get on the gymnastics mat, it doesn’t matter what happens in your personal life. I have to judge what’s happening on the dance floor.”
She closed by stating that she chose who she “believed was a better dancer and had come further.”
Judges chose to save Ally Brooke and her partner, Sasha Farber, over Van Der Beek and his teammate, Emma Slater, after revealing the devastating news. The Fifth Harmony alum spoke with Us Weekly exclusively about how she offered to have the Don’t Trust the B—- in Apartment 23 actor take her spot.
“I was very sad and upset and I felt like James deserved to be there. I really wanted to give him my spot but he wanted me to be there,” the 26-year-old said on Tuesday. “And for him to say, ‘Go shine,’ that meant the world. I’m gonna take that with me going into this week.”
Before Monday’s elimination, the 42-year-old Varsity Blue star shared that his wife miscarried over the weekend while expecting their sixth child. He shared the heartbreaking update on Dancing With the Stars, where he stated that his wife “went through every expectant parent’s worst nightmare.”
He later elaborated on the matter via Instagram by posting an extensive statement on the matter. “Wrecked. Devastated. In shock. That’s how we’re feeling right now after the soul we thought were going to welcome into our family in April… has taken a short cut to whatever lies beyond this life,” he wrote on Tuesday, November 19. “We’ve been through this before, but never this late in the pregnancy, and never accompanied by such a scary, horrific threat to @vanderkimberly and her well-being. Grateful that she’s now recovering, but we’ve only just begun unpacking the layers of this one.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
