Dancing With The Stars professionals Witney Carson and Mark Ballas allegedly refused to share a room during an earlier series.
Former contestants Alexa and Carlos PeneVega made the claim on the October 22 episode of their LEXLOS podcast.
Their comments follow Dancing With The Stars’ latest backstage controversy, involving fellow professional Val Chmerkovskiy. He was suspended for a week following an online remark about judge Carrie Ann Inaba.
For Alexa and Carlos, the alleged tension complicated their own experience of competing against each other. The married couple had hoped to spend more time together during rehearsals.
Witney Carson and Mark Ballas feud claims
Alexa and Carlos competed in series 21, with Alexa paired with Mark and Carlos dancing alongside Witney. They were the programme’s first married couple to compete against each other.
However, Alexa said their plans for a shared experience quickly ran into difficulties behind the scenes.
“There’s a lot of drama behind the scenes. At the time, Witney and Mark were not getting along at all,” Alexa said.
“At the time, Witney and Mark were not getting along at all, so they refused to be in the same room together, and that was really hard because we’re married,” she then continued. “The whole point that we were doing the show was, we’re gonna go in, and we’re gonna like, do this together as much as possible, and the second we go in, boom, Mark and Witney refuse to be in a room together.”
“It was like, oh my gosh, we thought we were going to be even rehearsing in the same room, and now we have to be so separate. We have to like dance around whatever’s going on with them,” she then added.
Carlos described different approaches to the competition. He said Mark wanted to win through more unconventional routines, which involved additional work. Witney, he said, had a different style.
Neither Alexa nor Carlos explained what had caused the disagreement.
How the DWTS partners finished the competition
Despite the alleged difficulties backstage, both couples progressed well into the series.
Alexa and Mark were eliminated in week nine, finishing sixth. Carlos and Witney reached the final and finished fourth.
Mark and Witney have since continued competing against one another on the programme.
Mark is currently partnered with Maura Higgins in series 35, with the pair still in contention for the Mirrorball.
Witney and Guillermo Rodriguez, known for Jimmy Kimmel Live, were eliminated the previous week.
ED! has contacted Mark and Witney’s representatives for comment.
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