Julianne Hough has had some time to reflect on Anna Delvey‘s Dancing With the Stars elimination.
Delvey, 33, who was paired with professional dancer Ezra Sosa, 23, famously said she’d be taking “nothing” away from her appearance on DWTS during the show’s September 24 episode. Delvey’s surprising comment garnered a ton of responses from both cast members and fans.
While attending an event held for the Democracy Heroes in New York City on Friday, September 27, Hough, 36, elaborated on how she felt about Delvey’s brutal comment when leaving DWTS.
“I’m always a big believer in grace and second chances and showing up,” Hough told People, after revealing that she’s attempting to remain “very neutral” about Delvey’s “nothing” comment.
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Hough continued, “Also, it’s hard to go out first in the competition.”
The Safe Haven star suggested that Delvey’s comment wasn’t necessarily as serious as some people assumed.
“I also heard somewhere that she was actually being silly and being very literal about that, with her history,” Hough told the outlet. “So there was that.”
Delvey found fame after posing as a German heiress, which led to her allegedly committing fraud against a number of businesses and wealthy individuals. Delvey, whose real name is Anna Sorokin, had her story dramatized in the Netflix series, Inventing Anna.
After being convicted of grand larceny and overstaying her U.S. visa during her prison sentence, Delvey had to ask ICE for permission to move to Los Angeles to film DWTS. Delvey incorporated her mandatory ankle monitor into her outfits on the competition series.
Since leaving DWTS, Delvey has spoken about her experience appearing on the popular reality show, suggesting that it wasn’t all positive.
“I feel that the show so obviously used me to drive up the ratings, that they never had any plans to give me any chance to grow and only cared about exploiting me for attention,” she told NBC News on Thursday, September 26.
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“It was predatory of them to try [to] make me feel inadequate and stupid, all while I did get progressively better, yet they chose to disregard that,” she explained.
Delvey also claimed she “was never really given a fair chance by the viewers or some of the judges, given their nonsensical scoring.”
Hough initially reacted to Delvey’s exit interview by posting a video clip on Instagram.
“There you have it….. ICONIC 
,” she captioned the excerpt.
