Dancing With the Stars pro Britt Stewart is setting the record straight on viral discourse about her future in the ballroom.
“The first thing I thought about when I saw that [report] was when I was approached by a little Black girl at Dancing With the Stars. She came up to me and said, ‘You are amazing, good job,’ and I said, ‘Thank you so much,’” Stewart, 37, told Cosmopolitan in an interview published Friday, October 30, referring to The Sun recently claiming that she was thinking about leaving the show after her back-to-back early eliminations. “I gave her a high-five, but her mom then followed and said, ‘Every time my daughter saw you go on the floor, she just, like, gasped. You being in the ballroom means so much for us and for my little girl.’”
Stewart, the first and only Black female DWTS pro, initially joined as a member of the troupe in 2016. She was elevated to a pro in 2020, though her partnerships have often left the competition well before the semifinals. For season 35, which is currently airing, Stewart was most recently paired with Taylor Hanson, but they were voted off in the third week on Yacht Rock Night.
Viewers then began to wonder whether Stewart would leave the show after what a pattern of early eliminations.
“When I see something like that [discourse], I just think, you know, that girl would be so disappointed in me if I don’t accomplish what I want to accomplish,” she told Cosmo. “I know I haven’t accomplished all that I could.”
Stewart has formed special bonds with most of her celebrity partners through the years — she married Coda actor Daniel Durant in August 2025 after they competed together on season 31 — but fans have still called for her to be given a “ringer” with previous dance experience to help clinch a spot in the finale.
“It’s so interesting, because I don’t think that there is a ‘ringer’ anymore,” she posited. “I think sometimes you have someone who comes on the show that you think is going to be absolutely incredible, and they just don’t connect with our audience, or vice versa.”
She continued, “What I do know is that for me, as a pro, I love to have someone who wants to be there and who can go deep, because the more that I can connect with someone, the better I am at storytelling.”
All in all, Stewart wants to create a special journey for her partner.
“Taylor works so hard. His work ethic is not like anything I’ve seen before,” she acknowledged of the Hanson singer. “He really dives into whatever project he’s working on, and so he did that with Dancing With the Stars. I felt like right when we got eliminated is when he was starting to allow himself to enjoy it. I just wish that the audience would have been able to see him really relax into the process a little bit more because I truly believe it would have been a beautiful journey for him.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
