Lindsay Arnold will not be returning for the 34th season of Dancing with the Stars — and for good reason.
“My reasons for not doing the show feel even more relevant than they did in the past,” Arnold, 31, said via TikTok on Saturday, August 30, while explaining that she has always kept her relationship with the show “open-ended.”
“It’s currently just better for me to be home with my family,” she added.“My girls have so many things going on this fall, and it’s so exciting. I just know that I’m exactly where I need to be and where I should be.”
Arnold shares daughters Sage, 4, and June, 2, with her husband, Samuel Cusick.
The professional dancer, who was the seventh female contestant to be eliminated during the 9th season of the popular dance series and has since appeared in 10 seasons of the show, also shed some light on what’s been going on — or not going on — behind the scenes.
“First of all, I am not being asked to come back. The producers are not reaching out to me and I’m turning them down saying, ‘No, I don’t want to do it.’ Like, none of that has happened,” she explained. (Arnold left the show in 2021 after season 30.)
“Since the season that I stepped away from the show, never once have the producers been like, ‘Oh, please come back,’ or asked me to come back,” Arnold continued. “If I wanted to come back at this point, I would definitely need to express that desire to the producers of the show, and then it still wouldn’t even be a guarantee that it would be something where they would decide if they have a spot for me or not.”
She also explained that should she decide she did want to participate again, waiting to hear back from the show’s team regarding her rejoining the cast would be difficult — and could potentially upend her children’s lives.
“I would wait just like every other pro to find out if I have a job for the season, which that’s another dynamic that makes it extremely hard with a family is just, even if I had expressed interest, which I didn’t, but if I had, I would be kind of waiting to find out till quite recently to be honest, if I needed to find a place to live down in California or if I needed to move my girls out there or figure out schooling for Sage in a different state,” Arnold continued.
As she put it, not participating in the show for now is the best decision for her family — but never say never.
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