Former ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Pro Sheds Light on Decision to Leave the Show originally appeared on Parade.
Lindsay Arnold is looking back on her Dancing with the Stars journey, and sharing the real reason she stepped away from the show.
Arnold, 31, competed on the ABC competition show for 10 seasons, leaving after Season 28 in 2020, when she was pregnant with her first child. She later returned for Season 30 in 2021, before again deciding to bid farewell to the famous ballroom.
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Now, Arnold is explaining the reasoning behind her decision to leave the show for the second time.
While making an appearance on Tay and Taylor Lautner‘s The Squeeze podcast, the pro dancer opened up about the experience she had competing on the show once she was already a mom to her firstborn daughter, Sage, whom she welcomed in September 2020 with husband Samuel Lightner Cusick.
“Before getting pregnant, I was always like, ‘Will I come back after having a baby?’ And I did. I went back,” Arnold recalled. “I did a season with Sage, and it was just a very, very, very different experience for me.”
“The show, as a pro, it’s a 24/7 job,” she went on to explain, noting that she could “no longer” give everything to the show once she was a mom.
“Everything just felt different, like it was hard. It was really, really hard,” she said, referring to her run on Season 30 with partner Matt James.
“At the end of that season I honestly felt like I knew in my heart, I’m like, ‘I think this is it for me,'” Arnold said. “I think I kind of like pushed it aside for a while, but then ultimately, I just knew.”
“My energy is in a different place. I want to be in this new phase of life,” added Arnold, who has since gone on to welcome a second daughter named June, born in May 2023.
Even though she described leaving DWTS as “the toughest decision” she ever had to make, Arnold said she knew it was what was “right” for her.
Related: ‘DWTS’ Alum Lindsay Arnold Suffers Unfortunate Wardrobe Malfunction Right Before Going on Live TV
Former ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Pro Sheds Light on Decision to Leave the Show first appeared on Parade on Jul 28, 2025
This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 28, 2025, where it first appeared.
