Fifth Harmony singer Lauren Jauregui is still processing her shocking Dancing With the Stars elimination.
“Well, I’m feeling really disappointed,” Jauregui, 29, tearfully said on the Thursday, October 2, episode of the show’s official podcast. “I’m a crybaby, I’m sorry! I’m feeling a little sad [and] upset. Just feeling a little overwhelmed to do this right after getting eliminated.”
Jauregui and pro partner Brandon Armstrong taped their appearance on Joey Graziadei’s podcast moments after the Tuesday, September 30, live show aired.
“[I’m] mid-mental breakdown, but here I am,” she quipped. “Thanks for not f***ing voting!”
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Jauregui and Armstong, 31, landed toward the top of the leaderboard during the first two weeks of competition. On Tuesday, they earned an 18 out of 30 for their cha cha to Fifth Harmony’s “Work From Home” during the show’s inaugural TikTok-inspired theme night.
While speaking with 30-year-old Graziadel, Jauregui speculated that her elimination came down to a lack of fan votes.
“I guess so. I mean, I’m not sure what people were thinking,” she said. “I gave my best, the judges scored me the way that they did, and then the voting was the next part. And my phone broke today, so I couldn’t even tell you to vote. Sorry.”
Armstrong, for his part, noted that fan votes are “50 percent of the deal” when pairs join the show.
“Part of being here is knowing you gotta go home at some point,” Jauregui said. “This was the first time we were doing Latin style. I will say that ballroom was a lot easier for me to learn. The cha cha was a little challenging, but Brandon is an amazing teacher and I felt like I was in good hands and felt really confident tonight.”
She added, “I will say I didn’t do my absolute best tonight, and so I think that elimination makes it feel that much more impactful ‘cause I would have at least liked to go off on my best.”
Jauregui was still proud of her cha cha attempt, which made her exit even more surprising.
“I wanted it so bad,” she quipped, further recalling her on-air comments after the results were read. “I was pissed. I had no other words, otherwise I would have started bawling and that wouldn’t have been cute.”
Armstrong was also shocked that he and Jauregui had “too short of a season.”
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“I will say, by far, [this was] the most painful elimination for me on the show,” Armstrong said. “It’s brutal — for a million reasons. I think the landscape of the show has shifted a lot, and I’m not a tea or a shade guy. I really look up to pros and celebrities who do it the right way.”
He continued, addressing Graziadei’s season 33 victory, “I feel like, last year, you won it the right way. You worked your buns off, technically you developed as a dancer, you don’t necessarily bail out to some of those other things. I think that’s all a part of the show. … I think that there’s people that really grind out and really do it the right way, you being one of them and Lauren being one of those people to a T. I really try to pride myself on doing it the right way, and I found the perfect partner.”
Now that Armstrong and Jauregui are out of the competition, they think the mirrorball is still up for grabs.
“If you guys went into the rehearsal studio and saw how hard every single celebrity is working, nobody deserves it more than the other,” Armstrong stressed. “Please don’t be sliding into these other folks’ [DMs and saying,] ‘You don’t deserve this or that.’ That’s crazy to me.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
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