Jana Kramer candidly revealed she nearly quit “Dancing With the Stars” after dealing with her partner, Gleb Savchenko’s, alleged “rude” behavior.
The “One Tree Hill” alum recalled her brutal experience on Season 23 of the competition series in 2016 on a recent episode of her “Whine Down” podcast.
“Emotionally, that show wrecked me,” she told guest and former “Bachelorette” Hannah Brown. “I struggled with the Russian.”
Explaining that she struggled with the way Savchenko, 42, taught, Kramer, 42, added, “Yeah, I was like, ‘Do not speak to me that way, period.”
“They didn’t show this on the show, but I was like, ‘I’m done. I quit. Yeah, I know that you can keep filming me. Don’t care he’s being rude, and I’m not having it.’
“At that point, you can push me so far, [then] I’m like, ‘We’re done here.’”
Despite bumping heads with Savchenko, who has been a seasoned dance professional on the series since 2013, Kramer knew his intentions weren’t meant to be mean, explaining, “He wanted to win too, and we were close.”
The actress and the dance pro secured fourth place, with Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez and pro Valentin Chmerkovskiy coming in first.
Brown, 31, who competed on Season 28 of “DWTS” with pro Alan Bersten, 32, in 2019, echoed similar sentiments, sharing, “There would be times in the studio where he would try to teach me a step and I could not move my feet because I was so scared of messing up.”
The Bachelor Nation alum admitted that she had “tantrums” while working with Bersten because she was “frustrated” with the way he talked to her.
“But then you have to realize that’s how they were talked to, that’s how they were coached, and so that’s all they know, and it’s really hard when you’re not used to that,” she said.
Ultimately, Brown and Bersten took home the Mirror Ball Trophy.
Kramer, meanwhile, isn’t the first celebrity to admit she had a difficult time on the dance series.
In fact, icon Priscilla Presley, who competed in 2008, revealed she “could not wait to get kicked off that show” because her former dance partner, Louis van Amstel, was too distracted by his new relationship.
“I was so nervous because … my partner, who I liked very much, was in a new relationship with another guy,” she said in May, per Us Weekly. “He had a date, and he wanted to get this and that, and I was a little bit frustrated because he put that before us. I felt we could have done a lot better.”
Season 35 of “DWTS” is gearing up to air on ABC and Disney+ in September 2026.
