Lacey Schwimmer is getting candid about a time when Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Louis van Amstel criticized her weight while on Dancing With the Stars.
“When I’m 19 years old and I’m excited to do this brand new venture, and be celebrated for something I’ve worked my whole life doing, to hear people I’ve looked up to … it literally broke my spirit,” she shared during a Monday, October 30, episode of Cheryl Burke’s “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans” podcast. “Oh, my God, it ruined me. I remember crying and crying and crying.”
In October 2008, Chmerkovskiy, 43, and van Amstel, 51, slammed Schwimmer, 35, and Burke, 39, for their bodies while speaking to TV Guide.
“When I first saw these women this season, I said, ‘Guys, you know the camera adds 10 pounds,’” Chmerkovskiy said at the time. “‘You have to do something about this.’”
Van Amstel, meanwhile, told the outlet: “[People] look at this show to be inspired and think, ‘If I just work hard enough, I can look like that. If they watch someone who’s dancing her butt off and she’s still heavy, they can be discouraged. You have to take that responsibility.”
At the time, Schwimmer responded to the comments on Access Hollywood, saying she was “confident and happy” with the way she looked. But behind the scenes, Schwimmer was “struggling with this issue.”
“From that, it has definitely messed up everything,” she told Burke, clarifying that she doesn’t fault Chmerkovskiy or van Amstel for their comments. “Of course, ever since that first quote from Maks and Louis, that let everyone else have an opinion of what I looked like.”
Van Amstel and Chmerkovskiy’s interview wasn’t the only occasion Schwimmer — who appeared off and on from seasons 7 through 13 — received criticism for her weight while on DWTS. She told Burke that a producer approached her after a fitting and said she needed to wear fishnets for a “smoother look” on camera.
“I thought maybe everyone was going through this, I thought that this was just what the show did,” she recalled of the incident, noting that it happened again during “multiple” seasons. “Looking back, that body that I had was phenomenal.”
Schwimmer, who was 19 when she first appeared on DWTS, said the show contributed to her negative perception of her body.
“In a weird way, I do feel, and this is my personal opinion, that Dancing With the Stars breeds body image issues for women,” she said. “We are forced to be put in bras and panties with a couple pieces of fringe on the butt. And just, you’re standing next to these girls who are naturally skinny and you have to take extreme measures.”
She continued: “There were times where I would eat, like, 500 calories a day and I’d be dancing all day and I’d be on Red Bull. And just, like, trying to go and go and go.”
Schwimmer also revealed that she “abused” diet pills, explaining she would have an alarm set on her phone “until I could take my next one.”
“I do find, and hear me out again, this is my personal opinion, the thinner you are, the more attention you end up getting on that show,” Schwimmer said.
When Schwimmer dropped from a size 6 to a size 2 and weighed 115 lbs, she said she started appearing in photo shoots and special dances associated with DWTS.
“So, you start getting this love, and it’s this weird backwards way of feeling successful for literally harming yourself,” she said.
Us Weekly has reached out to ABC for comment.
