"It genuinely feels like a breakup": Dancing with the Stars' Whitney Leavitt tearfully sheds light on her elimination

Dancing with the Stars season 34 evictee and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives fame Whitney Leavitt has finally opened up about her elimination from the show. 

On Thursday, November 20, 2025, Whitney took to Instagram to speak about her experience on the ABC series and share all that she took away from her time on the show. 

It was an emotional confession, where Whitney broke down in tears, reflecting on her elimination. 

“When you’re cast on Dancing with the Stars, you are seeing these people [for] hours every single day. Then, it just stops. It genuinely feels like a breakup. It feels like I’m going through withdrawals right now. Today just felt so weird. It felt so weird not going into the studio and meeting with Mark and learning a dance,” she said while holding back tears.

Whitney and her pro dance partner, Mark Ballas, were eliminated from the contest during the semi-finale, which featured Prince Night. 

Despite staying on top of the leaderboard for most of the season and tying for the second-highest score during Prince Night, Whitney was sent packing due to a lack of audience votes.

Speculations surrounding her elimination suggested that the release of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives season 3 on November 13, in which Whitney revealed that she returned to the show only for a shot at DWTS, reflected negatively on her participation and impacted votes. 

Dancing with the Stars season 34: Whitney expresses her gratitude to Mark Ballas for his friendship

The third season of The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives saw Whitney opening up about her intention to return to film season 3 after saying she was done with the show.

In one episode of the series, she explained:

“After last season, I did decide to step away from the show, but I never quit MomTok. I was always in MomTok, still a part of that group. I just really needed a break, but then I heard from my team Dancing With the Stars was going to cast someone from The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and that’s a motivator. I'll come back for that.”

Her confession drew backlash not only from her co-stars but also from fans of Dancing with the Stars, who were not pleased with her participation. Consequently, they celebrated when she was eliminated. 

“whitney only rejoined filming secret lives of mormon wives to get an audition for dwts…. she is so shady and gross pls,” one X user said.

Another fan posted:

“WE DID IT CHAT WE GOT RID OF THE MORMON THANK YOU GAWD.”

Many have speculated that the release of the Hulu show might have influenced the votes as she had high scores from the judges.

In the Instagram video, Whitney broke down, recalling her time on the ABC show. She cherished the “real friendships” she developed with her co-stars, saying that she learnt “so much” about herself. 

Some of her key takeaways included surrounding oneself with people who “believe in you” and “who want to see you achieve your delusional dreams.”

However, the hardest part for Whitney was not heading to the studio with Mark. She expressed her gratitude to him for his friendship and support on the show. Although she “loved every bit of it,” it was finding a “lifelong friend” in him that she cherished the most. 

“I love you guys, and I f**king love this show,” Whitney concluded. 

During an interview with E! News on November 19, 2025, Whitney hinted at the off-show drama surrounding her participation, noting that she knew it would be them going home and that “there’s just some things that are out of your control.”

Regardless, she did not regret anything as she stated that she had given it her all. 

Dancing with the Stars will air its grand finale on November 25, 2025, at 8:00 pm EST.

Stay tuned for more updates.