Dancing with the Stars' Danielle Fishel opens up about the challenges of living in the public eye

ABC Network’s hit reality TV show, Dancing with the Stars, which airs its episodes on Disney+ and Hulu, is currently on its thirty-fourth season. Dancer Danielle Fishel, who is 44 years old, recently opened up about the struggles that she has been facing lately due to being a part of the reality TV show.

On the November 3, 2025, episode of Danielle’s podcast called 'Danielle with the Stars', she shared how difficult it is to be a woman under scrutiny all the time for her own personal choices. She also shared how being a part of the show and having to continuously perform has triggered disordered eating for her, in addition to low self-esteem issues.

However, she also chose to speak up about how transformative her entire experience on Dancing with the Stars has been in relation to her career. She is currently one of the two captains for the first-ever team dance competition on season 34.

She said that she had been chosen as a leader with a strategy and picked a fabulous team to put that strategy to use. 

Details explored on Dancing with the Stars contestant Danielle Fishel’s struggles of being a celebrity

ABC Network’s hit reality TV show, Dancing with the Stars, which is currently on season 34, has a contestant dancer, Danielle Fishel, who recently opened up about what it is like being in the public limelight and having all her personal decisions judged by the audience.

She shared that in the upcoming episode of the show, for its Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Night, she would be performing a dance routine on Aerosmith’s ‘Dream On’. She said,

“We are telling the story about how difficult it can be to be a woman in a society where we are somehow always too much and also never enough. No matter what choice you make, whether you work inside the home or outside the home. If you choose to work outside, then you’re selfish and your children need you, and where is their mother, and if you work inside the home, then you are boring and don’t have interests”. 

She spoke to former contestant Louis van Amstel and shared that preparing for the reality show has negatively impacted her quite a lot, along with disordered eating habits and low self-esteem. In addition to that, she continued to feel like she didn't want to perform. Louis appreciated Danielle’s candid conversation and said,

“Just having this conversation, this is why I love or loved doing Dancing With the Stars”.

Fishel’s husband, Jenson Karp, also appreciated the courage of his 44-year-old wife for choosing to stay on and fight. She, however, also added that while the journey has been significantly tough, she has thoroughly enjoyed being one of the two captains for the first team dance competition and planned out an effective strategy. 

Danielle Fishel is the leader of the team called ‘Chicago’, which includes Whitney Levitt, Jordan Chiles, Alfonso Ribeiro, and Dylan Efron. She admitted that she was the only female on his team with the least experience, but she has been working on that as well. She shared,

“ I picked an all-star team and it didn’t come randomly. I had a full strategy going into it, and my strategy paid off”.

Stay tuned for more updates.