Dancing With the Stars pro Witney Carson is especially thankful this Thanksgiving season after clinching her second mirrorball trophy.
“I seriously have no words. I’m just, like, coming off all the adrenaline and the messages have been incredible,” Carson, 32, said in an Instagram video shared Thursday, November 27, while getting ready for her family’s Thanksgiving dinner. “It’s been the craziest ride ever. To share this win with someone like Robert [Irwin] is so special.”
Carson and wildlife conservationist Irwin, 21, won season 34 of DWTS during the Tuesday, November 25, finale.
“There’s just so much to be thankful for, holy cow,” she said two days later. “Moments before [it was announced], I had no idea who the winner was going to be. … I remember Robert and I just looking at each other. I kept saying, ‘Whatever happens, we’ve already won.’ We had the most amazing season together and made the most amazing memories.”
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Carson further revealed that she was “so overcome with emotions” after cohost Alfonso Ribeiro, her winning season 19 partner, announced that she and Irwin won the show.
“We were thinking all day, ’11 years ago that day, I had won with Alfonso,’” she recalled. “Eleven has been mine and Carson [McAllister’s] number since his dad passed away. Eleven-eleven has been very significant [to my husband and I]. Eleven years just felt so meant to be. It was crazy.”
She continued, “Through all the losses and the tough times that I’ve been through, the roller-coaster of this show and the seasons year after year [and] getting so close to winning but never actually winning is hard. This win just meant so much, like, all of the losses were worth it for this moment.”
Carson also noted that Irwin was one of the most deserving celebrities to walk away with the trophy.
“If anyone deserves the mirrorball, it is Robert Irwin,” she stated. “What I love about Robert’s journey is that he came in as a zookeeper with no dance experience at all. He gave 110 percent in everything that I ever asked him to do — no matter what it was. He was excited every day to learn new choreography.”
Before Carson continued her DWTS reflections, she broke down in tears.
“[He had a] determination to do well for himself, for me, his family — and that was so apparent in every dance that we did,” she added, wiping away her tears. “He proved to himself and to America that he was becoming a dancer. He’s the epitome of Dancing With the Stars. That’s what it’s about: to dive fearlessly into something that is so out of your comfort zone.”
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All in all, Carson found season 34 to be “indescribably special.”
“There are no words to do it justice,” she concluded. “This season, in particular, will be a season and a time in my life that I will tell my kids about for the rest of their lives. It’s changed me in so many ways.”
Carson frequently had the support of her husband and their two sons, Leo and Jet, throughout the season. The two toddlers even made it to Tuesday’s finale, where they got to hug their mom after her victory.
Dancing WIth the Stars airs on ABC Tuesdays at 8 p.m. EDT and streams the next day on Hulu.
