Rylee Arnold addressed the “crazy” speculation about her and Harry Jowsey’s rumored romance — and explained why he spent Thanksgiving with her family.
“Harry didn’t have any plans for Thanksgiving,” Arnold, 18, shared during an episode of the “Lightweights” podcast on Sunday, November 26. “My family always goes all out for Thanksgiving. All the dinner, all the games. So, I was like, ‘Harry’s got to join. He’s got to have a Thanksgiving this year.’ So, he came along.”
Arnold and Jowsey, 26, have sparked romance rumors since making their debut as Dancing With the Stars partners in September. The duo have repeatedly denied that they’re dating, but they raised eyebrows last week when the Too Hot to Handle alum appeared at her family’s Thanksgiving celebration following their elimination from the show.
“He came to my family’s Thanksgiving. They came down to California to do Thanksgiving here so I could be there, and he joined, and it was really fun,” Arnold explained. “He had a good time, I think, and all my nieces and nephew love him, so it was really cute.”
Arnold is the youngest of four. Her older sisters — Lindsay, 29, Jensen, 26, and Brynley, 23 — all have families and kids of their own, and Arnold shared various pictures of her and Jowsey hanging out with the youngsters. One image showed the duo playing with Brynley and husband Donny McGinnis’ daughter Quincy.
The snap that caught the most attention, however, showed Jowsey standing on the beach with Arnold’s hand on his chest.
While Arnold has been reading fan comments since DWTS started, she noted that she never imagined to get this much traction during her first year on the show.
“For my first season, it’s kind of crazy that I was a part of the most-talked-about couple,” she said on Sunday’s podcast. “We were the most-talked-about couple this season, and that’s just insane.”
Dating rumors ramped up in September when a video of the duo holding hands went viral. When they later attended the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour movie premiere together, fan speculation went into overdrive.
Jowsey told Us last month that the dating rumors about himself and Arnold are “unfair” because they distract DWTS viewers from their performances. “We should focus on choreography and our dancing and not whether we’re together or not,” he said. “It’s not a dating show, it’s a dancing show.”
Despite their undeniable chemistry, the twosome were eliminated during the November 21 live show. While they’re no longer DWTS partners, Arnold hopes that she and Jowsey will stay in touch.
“I hope we stay friends because our relationship is so fun and we really just connected a lot,” she shared on Sunday. “When you’re in the show, the person and the partner you’re with, you just build this connection because you got through so much together — stress and anxiety. I think we really bonded and had a good time together.”
