Sasha Farber is staying in touch with his former Dancing With the Stars partner Mary Lou Retton amid her recent health scare.
“I’ve been talking to her today and she’s fighting,” Farber, 39, told Entertainment Tonight after the Tuesday, October 10, live broadcast of DWTS. “She kind of wants to give up, but I’m sending her videos of her dancing and I’m telling her, ‘There’s only one Mary Lou Retton. You’ve got this!’”
He continued: “You’ve got to see the people [you care about], you’ve gotta say hi, you gotta call them. And I’ve been speaking to her today. She’s a fighter. She’s going to be great.”
Several hours earlier, Retton’s daughter McKenna Lane Kelley announced that the 55-year-old retired gymnast is “fighting for her life” in the hospital after contracting pneumonia. (Retton shares McKenna, 26, with ex-husband Shannon Kelley, alongside daughters Shayla, 28, Skyla, 23, and Emma, 21.)
“My amazing mom, Mary Lou, has a very rare form of pneumonia and is fighting for her life,” McKenna wrote via SpotFund. “She is not able to breathe on her own. She’s been in the ICU for over a week now. Out of respect for her and her privacy, I will not disclose all details. However, I will disclose that she is not insured.”
She continued: “We ask that if you could help in any way, that 1) you PRAY! and 2) if you could help us with finances for the hospital bill. ANYTHING, absolutely anything, would be so helpful for my family and my mom. Thank y’all so very much!”
No further updates on Retton’s condition have been shared.
Retton previously appeared on DWTS season 27, which premiered in September 2018, where she danced with Farber. They were the fifth couple to be eliminated. (Sharna Burgess and radio DJ Bobby Bones ultimately took home the mirrorball trophy.)
“This has been the time of my life,” Retton said during the October 2018 episode of DWTS after being sent home. “I hadn’t challenged myself in decades and I challenged myself and I’m off to a fresh start.”
Retton and Farber have continued to stay close since their time in the ballroom ended.
“She was in L.A. [a few weeks] ago and she wanted to meet up, [but] I had rehearsals and I couldn’t,” Farber, who is currently partnered with Alyson Hannigan on DWTS season 32, told ET on Tuesday. “She was like, ‘Let me take you out for dinner,’ and I couldn’t go because I had rehearsals. … I know her very well. And she’s like family to me and she’s a fighter. She’s strong.”
