Dancing With the Stars pro Pasha Pashkov is taking responsibility for his bloody rehearsal injury with celebrity partner Amber Glenn.
“A huge part of it was my fault,” Pashkov, 40, exclusively told Us after the Tuesday, September 29, live broadcast. “This is the reason: it’s because we had a good run. We did a good run, beginning to end, and it’s one of those where you have 10 minutes left of the rehearsal, just leave and get some rest. And I was like, ‘Let’s do it one more time,’ and you need to know when to stop and when enough is enough.”
Before Pashkov and Glenn’s foxtrot across the ballroom floor, the 26-year-old Olympic skater accidentally hit her partner in the face during their rehearsals.
“It wasn’t like [the] last day [before the live show]. We still had a couple days left,” he explained to Us. “I didn’t know when to stop. I pushed it one too many times, and I got what I deserved.”
Glenn, for her part, felt equally bad over the incident.
“No, you couldn’t have known,” she told Us on Tuesday, addressing her pro partner. “He’s hard on himself.”
Pashkov and Glenn were able to overcome his nose injury, scoring an impressive 24 out of 30 for their Yacht Rock Night routine to Toto’s “Hold the Line.”
“We went first tonight, which was very different for us. It was a new experience for me,” Glenn added of the performance. “Pasha knows what he’s doing, obviously, or else he wouldn’t be a pro. So I just followed him, trusted it, and, yeah, I’m just excited to get on to next week. He’s done a fantastic job.”
Pashkov and Glenn’s elegant number even impressed the choreographer’s wife, Daniella Karagach.
“Him and Amber are so unreal,” Karagach, 33, told Us in a separate Tuesday interview, adding that her husband still “looks hot” despite the unexpected facial injury. “This kind of stuff happens. Amber felt so bad, she texted me right away and I was like, ‘Girl.’ It’s the worst feeling in the world, and I know exactly how she felt because there’s just nothing you can do in a moment, and you want to help. She is the sweetest soul, and she sent him a bunch of candy and flowers. She is just the sweetest, and I was like, ‘Dancing is a contact sport.’”
Both Pashkov and Glenn, as well as Karagach and Ezra Frech, will return for next week’s Mariah Carey theme night.
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
