Ezra Sosa shows his support for his own 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 the convicted con man, 33, has received since being cast on the show.
“I just want to come here and talk about my first official performance as a professional dancer Dancing with the stars“, he shared on TikTok. “What is life? I can’t believe this is happening to me right now.”
He called it “the best day ever” because he felt “so much love from literally every single person, including my partner.” However, he noted that Delvey did not feel the same support.
Anna Delvey is ‘grateful’ for ViewOn-air correction after apologizing for ‘false and defamatory statements’
“For me, I felt so much positivity,” he explained while crying. “As for my partner, she did not receive the same. I think the hardest part is the 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 have never seen her like this and it broke my heart.”
“As her partner, I wanted to give her the best experience possible, and knowing that wasn’t the case really broke 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, became famous for posing as a wealthy German heiress and using her social position to defraud wealthy people, banks and hotels. She was arrested in 2017 and convicted of aggravated theft in the first, second and third degree and theft of services in 2019.
That May, Delvey was sentenced to four to 12 years in state prison (which was reduced 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 the $320,000 she received from Netflix for the rights to adapt her life story into a TV series (later titled Making up 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 was living under house arrest in New York while she fought her deportation case.
Anna Delvey says Whoopi Goldberg should ‘get her facts straight’ and demands ‘on-air correction’ after DWTS Slam
“I know what she did was really controversial and it wasn’t right,” Sosa shared in his video. “I can never justify it for her and for anyone in her life, it’s really hard for me, because the person I really fall in love with every day at rehearsals is not the person everyone sees in the media.”
“Nobody deserves the amount of hate she’s getting right now,” he continued. “She deserves a second chance. She’s stepped up and I can’t wait for you to see how much she’s progressed, so tune in next Tuesday. Dancing with the starsand see you there.”
Delvey hit the headlines when he was discovered on Good morning America on September 4th to compete for the mirror ball trophy along with 12 other celebrity contestants. While speaking with PEOPLE moments after the news broke, she revealed that she received special permission from ICE to compete on the condition that she continue to wear her ankle bracelet.
Earlier this month, Dancing with the stars showrunner, Conrad Green, defended the show’s 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 that we have on the show,” Green said. Diversity. “Anna is fascinating to a lot of people, a lot of people have seen dramas about her life and followed her story, so I think there’s an inherent curiosity about her.”
Noting that the convicted fraudster is familiar with the “world of fashion”, he added that he believes fans will “really want to see” her on the dance floor.
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Dancing with the stars season 33 airs Tuesdays at 8pm ET on ABC and Disney+, and the episode is available to watch the following day on Hulu.
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Source: HIS Education