Yahoo Lifestyle Anna Delvey's “Dancing with the Stars ”Partner Ezra Sosa Says She Hid in the Bathroom Crying After Premiere amid Backlash
"I've never seen her like that, and it broke my heart," Sosa shared of seeing Delvey after the 'Dancing with the Stars' season 33 premiere
Disney/Eric McCandless
(L-R) Ezra Sosa and Anna Delvey on the season 33 premiere of Dancing with the Stars on September 17, 2024.Ezra Sosa is showing his support for his Dancing with the Stars partner Anna Delvey.
Sosa — who was promoted to pro-dancer on the show for season 33 — opened up about the backlash that the convicted con artist, 33, has received since being cast on the show.
“I just want to come on here and just talk about my first official show as a professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars,” he shared on TikTok. “What is life? I cannot believe this is happening to me right now.”
He called it the “best day ever” as he felt “so much love from literally every single person, including my partner.” However, he noted that Delvey did not feel the same support.
“On my end, I was feeling so much positivity,” he explained as he teared up. “On my partner's end, she wasn't receiving the same. I think the hardest part of my day after [the] press line, she was reading the comments and we couldn't find her. They finally found her in the bathroom. She was crying. I've never seen her like that, and it broke my heart.”
"As her partner, I wanted to give her the best experience she possibly could, and knowing that that's not the case, it really did break my heart,” he added.
The professional dancer, however, noted that he could not defend Delvey’s criminal past.
Delvey, whose real name is Anna Sorkin, gained notoriety for posing as a wealthy German heiress and used her social standing to defraud wealthy people, banks and hotels. She was arrested in 2017 and convicted of grand larceny in the first, second and third degree as well as theft of services in 2019.
That May, Delvey was sentenced to four to 12 years in state prison (which was cut short when she was released in February 2021 for good behavior), fined $24,000, and ordered to pay restitution of about $199,000. She paid restitution to her victims using $320,000 she received from Netflix for rights to adapt her life story into a TV series (which was later titled Inventing Anna and released in 2022), Insider reported.
Shortly after her release, Delvey was taken into custody by ICE for violating the terms of her visa. She has been living under house arrest in New York City while fighting her deportation case.
“I know what she did was really controversial and was not right,” Sosa shared in his video. “I can never justify that for her and for anyone in her life, it's really hard for me, because this person that I'm truly just falling in love with every single day in rehearsal isn't the person that everyone sees in the media.”
“No one deserves the amount of hate that she's getting right now,” he continued. “She deserves a second chance. She has stepped up to the plate, and I just cannot wait for y'all to see how much she has improved, so tune in this next Tuesday. Dancing with the Stars, and I'll see you there.”
Delvey made headlines when it was revealed on Good Morning America on Sept. 4 that she would be competing for the mirrorball trophy alongside 12 other celebrity contestants. While speaking to PEOPLE moments after the news dropped, she revealed that she received special permission from ICE to compete under the condition she would continue wearing her ankle bracelet.
Earlier this month, Dancing with the Stars showrunner, Conrad Green, defended the series decision to allow Delvey the opportunity to perform.
"We’ve always tried to be a very broad church when it comes to the types of people, the types of backgrounds, the types of stories we have on the show," Green told Variety. "Anna is fascinating to a lot of people, a lot of people have watched the dramas about her life and have followed her story, so I think there is an inherent curiosity about her."
Noting how the convicted con artist is familiar with the "world of fashion," he added that he believes fans will "really want to see her" hit the dance floor.
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Dancing with the Stars season 33 airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+, with the episode available to stream the next day on Hulu.
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