After Much Criticism Of Her Casting, Anna Delvey Was Found Crying In The Bathroom After The "Dancing With The Stars" Premiere

Season 33 of Dancing With the Stars has been the subject of much online criticism since it was announced that Anna Delvey, a convicted con artist, had joined the cast.

Anna, whose real name is Anna Sorokin, gained public attention after she pretended to be a German heiress and used her assumed wealth to defraud banks, hotels, and several people. In 2017, she was arrested, and in 2019, she was convicted of grand larceny in the second degree, attempted grand larceny, and theft of services.

In May 2019, Anna was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but she was released in February 2021 for good behavior. Shortly after her release, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) took her into custody for violating the terms of her visa. Anna has since been living under house arrest in New York City while fighting to stay in the US legally.

Anna explained that she's able to compete on the show, and she must wear an ankle monitor at all times. "Well, [DWTS] approached my team and I had to request ICE for permission to travel out of state because it's being filmed in Los Angeles and I'm based in New York," she said. "It took them about 10 days to get it through the system and to get everything approved. By the time I got the approval, it was very close to the starting day so I kind of flew to LA pretty much the next day and I just decided why not?"

Initially, when asked how she felt about the criticism over her casting she said, "It's just not that serious. If someone is that upset about casting on a dancing show, I don't know what to tell them."

So, Season 33 of DWTS premiered Sept. 17, and Anna performed the cha cha with her partner, Ezra Sosa. All seemed well.

But in a video posted Sept. 23, Ezra discussed what actually happened behind the scenes with Anna the night of the premiere.

"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 said. "What is life? I cannot believe this is happening to me right now." He added that he felt "so much love from literally every single person, including my partner."

"On my end, I was feeling so much positivity,” he tearfully explained. "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 said.

"I know what she did was really controversial and was not right,” he added. "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 said. "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."

Watch Ezra's full video here.