Charity Lawson Rolls Eyes Recalling Criticism From ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Judges: ‘Became a Lot’

Charity Lawson had a lot to say — and not say — about her experience on Dancing With the Stars.

“One thing I wanted to ask you, though, is judges were critical, of not your technique but you showing the emotion and the confidence,” Jason Tartick said on the Monday, July 8, episode of the “Trading Secrets” podcast, to which Lawson, 28, replied with a laugh, “Yeah. Sorry, my eyes are rolling.”

Lawson admitted that the judges — which included Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough — were “not wrong” with their feedback.

“Obviously, the first few weeks I was like, ‘Oh, OK, they want to see more. They’re pushing me to see more,’” she recalled. “But when it got to the point where I was getting the consistent comment the whole season, I was [like], ‘Literally, what am I doing wrong?’”

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Lawson confessed that the criticism was “hard” for her because it took her back to her cheerleading days, but it also made her feel like they weren’t seeing who she is “as a person.”

“They see me as this person who’s always put together and is perfectly poised, and I’m like, ‘But that’s not me,’” Lawson continued, adding that her loved ones have seen the “crazy sides” of her. “People know me, but it’s like, I now have to truly let the world in. Obviously The Bachelorette, it’s an emotional journey, it’s an emotional experience. Y’all saw that. But you’re not seeing it in the way where it’s translated through dance.”

While praising her “phenomenal” partner, Artem Chigvintsev, Lawson said she could have benefitted from not focusing so heavily on one area of dancing.

“I do think there were times where I was like, ‘OK, maybe we should not focus on technique. This is the area that I really need help on. Let’s just take one whole rehearsal doing this and this alone, not just a minute and 30 seconds on it,’” she said. “That’s where I was getting frustrated and it was really tiring to kind of go through that. It became a lot on me throughout the experience.”

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Lawson and Chigvintsev, 42, placed fourth during the finale of DWTS season 32, which aired in December 2023. (Xochitl Gomez and her partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, were crowned champions and took home the first-ever Len Goodman Mirror Ball Trophy.)

When it comes to the upcoming season 33 of DWTS, Lawson had a couple predictions about who from Bachelor Nation could strap on their dancing shoes.

“Obviously before the Golden thing happened, I was like, ‘Gerry [Turner] I think would’ve been really good and engaging,’” Lawson said, referencing Turner’s recent divorce from Golden Bachelor season 1 winner Theresa Nist. “But if we have to talk about who we think, I think it’s probably Joey [Graziadei]. We were like, ‘I think Joey would do really good.’”

After her stint as The Bachelorette in 2023, Lawson ended her season engaged to Dotun Olubeko. Runner-up Graziadei, 29, was announced as the lead of The Bachelor season 28, where he popped the question to Kelsey Anderson in March.

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Lawson also noted that The Bachelor season 28 contestant Maria Georgas — who has a dance background — “would do really good” as well as The Bachelorette season 21 lead Jenn Tran.

“I don’t know if Jenn wants to do it. She probably does. Would she be good at it? Probably,” Lawson said. “But I would have to rank it in that order.”