Originally appeared on E! Online
Amanda Kloots is dancing through her memories.
The "Talk" host got candid about what it was really like competing on season 30 of "Dancing With the Stars" in 2021, especially alongside her professional dance partner Alan Bersten.
"He was very mean to me," Kloots admitted on the "Boyfriend Material with Harry Jowsey" podcast Nov. 19. Although she chalked it up to his Russian upbringing, explaining, "Growing up Russian, growing up in that dance atmosphere. And he did see a lot of potential in me, and he saw that we could possibly win this thing."
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
Kloots added that she "got yelled at," but that she would often keep it inside because she didn't want to derail their rehearsal time if the producers wanted to do an interview about how she was feeling.
"I would just keep it bottled up," she said, "and we would just be dancing, and I would just be raging inside."
E! News has reached out to reps for Alan and ABC but has not heard back.
Entertainment News
READ Inside Nick Cordero and Amanda Kloots' Heartwarming, Heartbreaking Love Story
Still, the 42-year-old knows she was a positive influence on Bersten, with whom she placed fourth that year, as Iman Shumpert and Daniella Karagach took home the famed mirror ball trophy.
"I think Alan has grown up a lot in the last couple of years," Kloots explained. "I'm saying this, and I know that he'll agree with me: I helped him become a nicer person in teaching."
The former "Rockette" — who shares son Elvis, 5, with late husband Nick Cordero — previously gave insight into her "DWTS" journey during a conversation with Katie Couric.
"The hardest part about Dancing with the Stars, I think, for me, was definitely the stress of learning a brand new dance each week and needing it to be show-ready, perfect for performance in six days," she explained in Nov. 2021. "Every dance is different because the technique is different, the style is different, what makes the dance unique is different. So, to learn it and then to feel good about it and then feel ready enough to perform it, it was exhausting both mentally and physically."
Though there were a few silver-linings, like her son getting to watch her dance.
"It was very cute because he kind of went along the journey with me," Kloots said, "and got into it and then really started liking watching me and Alan dance. He started pointing out Alan too, which was very cute."
