Bachelorette Charity Lawson Breaks Down About “Damaging” Bullying She Experienced On ‘Dancing With The Stars’: “I Literally Went Through Hell And Back”

Not everything was sparkly costumes and Mirrorball Trophy aspirations for Charity Lawson on Dancing with the Stars.

Lawson, who placed fourth with Artem Chigvintsev on Season 32 which aired in 2023, made some shocking accusations about her time on the show while speaking with former DWTS pro dancer Cheryl Burke on Monday’s (July 29) installment of Burke’s Sex, Lies and Spray Tans podcast. The Bachelor and The Bachelorette alum, who works as a therapist, noted that she was “surprised” that the reality dance competition show didn’t have a therapist on set, per Variety.

“Honestly, I’m very surprised because quite literally, while Dancing With the Stars was great, I literally went through hell and back with my mental health in that show,” she revealed, later adding that “it hit [her] like a ton of bricks” in the third or fourth week of the show.

Later on in the episode, Burke brought up the “bullying” Lawson allegedly experienced while on the show, deeming it “shocking.” However, Lawson questioned that description.

“Is it shocking?” she asked. “I don’t know if it’s shocking.”

While Lawson initially anticipated the DWTS fanbase to be “a piece of cake” following her time on The Bachelorette, she ultimately found the experience to be “almost to the point where it was so much worse than Bachelor and Bachelorette.”

“I was getting death threats for existing,” she claimed, “for not performing enough, for being conceited, for being entitled, for being the biggest bitch on the cast. It’s crazy.”

Lawson elaborated on the “damaging” social media hate she received, noting that she “blocked and filtered” the comments on her own posts and that the backlash even transcended her account and landed in the comments section of the show’s official account. She recalled telling Chigvintsev that “this is unfortunately what [they’re] dealing with and what [they’re] up against.”

She was brought to tears as she explained further, noting how she was eventually motivated to open up about the experience.

“The difference that I have to go through this life as a Black woman and being on a reality TV show. It’s like the same things are just not protected,” she shared.

Lawson noted that there were weeks she’d hoped to be voted off, calling it “a really dark place” to be in. Eventually, she and Burke discussed the show’s video packages, highlighting that her talking about her scores often made it into the episodes.

“It’s shaped this way that I was boasting and bragging about my scores but I’m only talking about them because you guys asked me,” she lamented, ultimately noting “that was really frustrating” because it was “almost skewing the viewers in this way of, ‘All she cares about are scores’ [and] ‘She thinks she’s better than everyone.'”

Decider reached out to ABC for comment, but did not hear back by time of publication.

As for her run on The Bachelorette, Lawson and Dotun Olubeko got engaged at the end of her season. She recently disclosed to Entertainment Tonight that they have picked a wedding date in 2025.

If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, call or text the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) hotline at 800-950-NAMI (6264).