Dancing with the Stars Pro Ezra Sosa said convicted con artist Anna Delvey was found sobbing in the bathroom after her dance floor debut.
The duo is associated with the ABC dance competition, but the fact that Delvey, aka the fake heiress, is a contestant has angered some fans. Delvey, a German citizen of Russian descent, became famous for scamming thousands of dollars by posing as a wealthy New York socialite. She was convicted of grand larceny and theft of services in 2019 and was released in 2021. She now wears an electronic ankle monitor as she fights deportation from the United States
Delvey and Sosa have made their DWTS Delvey debuted his bejeweled electronic bracelet this month. And now the dancer has defended his partner, posting a video message on Instagram saying Delvey “deserves a second chance.”
“That whole day was really the best day of their lives,” Sosa said of the start of their DWTS “In the sense that I felt so much love from every single person, including my partner. On my end, I felt so much positivity. On my partner’s end, she didn’t get the same.”
Andrew Eccles/Disney
Looking tearful, he continued: “I think the hardest part of my day was after the press conference, 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,” he added, wiping away a tear. “As a partner, I wanted to give her the best experience possible. And to know that she didn’t, it really broke my heart.”
Sosa said Delvey, whose story inspired the Netflix series Inventing Anna—deserved another chance.
“I know what she did was very controversial and it wasn’t right, and I can never justify that to her and to anyone in her life,” he said. “It’s really hard for me because this person that I really fall in love with every day in rehearsals is not the person that everyone sees in the media.
“No one deserves the hate she’s getting right now. She deserves a second chance.”
He added that Delvey had “stepped up” in the competition and he was looking forward to fans seeing how much she had improved.
“I hope everyone shows Anna some mercy,” Sosa captioned the clip. “She’s working really hard to make a fresh start, and we’re just getting started…”
Newsweek has reached out to representatives for Sosa and Delvey for comment.
