“I let them get to me”: Suni Lee clarifies walking away from ‘Dancing With the Stars’ stage live

Suni Lee performing on Dancing with the Stars Season 30 (Image via Eric McCandless/ABC)

Last night, Dancing with the Stars’ celebrity contestants impressed viewers and judges with their incredible performances to Janet Jackson songs. Fans were happy to see gymnast Suni Lee return after walking away from the stage live in Queen Night special last week.

Lee addressed the incident on Janet Jackson Night on Monday and said:

“Last week was rough. I literally ran off the stage on live TV. When I was backstage, I was more embarrassed than anything, but I was not about to throw up on national TV.”

Apparently, Lee wanted to throw up even before her solo performance with partner Sasha Farber, but she controlled the urge and finished her dance. Negative comments had reportedly upset her, as she said, “I let them get to me,” which made her look unhappy on stage.

While the athlete called it the hardest week on Dancing with the Stars, her partner Farber said:

“Right before the dance started… we were standing in the tunnel, and she just kinda, like, 10 seconds in, vomited in her mouth and tears started to come out, and she started walking away, saying, like, ‘No, I can’t do it.’ I was like, ‘Suni, you’ve got this. Come on. This is game time’. And she turned around, and she was, like, holding it in, and she held it in for a minute 35 and then the second the dance was over, she ran to a trashcan.”

It looks like this episode made Lee stronger as she ended up with a perfect score on episode 9 on Monday.

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Fans were happy with Lee’s Janet Jackson performance

Lee and Farber’s solo performance included samba dance style to Jackson’s All For You. Their incredible confidence while performing was impressive to watch, which earned the pair a perfect score of 40 from the judges on Dancing with the Stars.

In fact, they notched two bonus points for their dance-off round.

Netizens were all gaga over Lee’s performance on Dancing with the Stars episode 9 and were happy to see her back on stage with confidence.

Here’s how they reacted online:

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About Dancing with the Stars episode 9

The theme of Dancing with the Stars episode 9 was Janet Jackson Night, so the celebrities performed to her iconic songs. While Jimmie Allen (scored 32) and Iman Shumpert (scored 35) chose the cha cha dance style and grooved to Escapade and Rhythm Nation, JoJo Siwa showed her salsa moves to Feedback and scored 39.

Cody Rigsby and Melora Hardin performed paso doble to Black Cat and If, scoring 38 and a perfect 40, respectively.

Olivia Jade’s Argentine tango to Any Time, Any Place gave her 36, and Amanda Kloots earned the perfect score with her jazz (Miss You Much). Lee, too, got 40 for her samba to Jackson’s song All for You.

After the solo and dance-off rounds, the double-elimination took place, and Hardin, Allen, and Jade were in the bottom three. The judges saved Hardin, so Jade and Allen had to pack their bags and leave Dancing with the Stars Season 30 for good.

Dancing with the Stars premieres on ABC every Monday from 8.00 pm to 10.00 pm (ET).