‘Dancing With the Stars’: Sailor Brinkley-Cook Speaks out Following Surprising Elimination

Dancing With the Stars contestant Sailor Brinkley-Cook has spoken out following her very surprising recent elimination from the show. While speaking with Good Morning America on Monday night, Brinkley-Cook began to tear up and said, “I loved this experience so much. I loved going to the studio and being able to do something I never thought I could do.” She went on to add, “I just want to say thank you to everyone who supported me because I know I’m not a big star, but I was so happy to have done something that I was so afraid of.”

Her partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, also offered a comment on the elimination, saying, “We’re very proud that Sailor was able to step up to the plate and create a silver lining to a terrible situation and again, Season 28 has been a crazy rollercoaster.”

Ahead of the eliminated duo breaking their silence on the shocking DWTS development, many of their competitors also shared thoughts on the situation.

“It was completely shocking … I just can’t believe that Sailor was in the bottom two. And then she got eliminated? Like, it was completely and utterly shocking,” DWTS competitor Ally Brooke, who was also in the bottom two, told ET. “I love that girl, she was one of my closest friends on this show, so I’m just shocked. I’m sure she’s completely sad, and I know she’s probably just taking her time to process this.”

“I just can’t imagine how she’s feeling right now. We’re going to go give her a hug afterwards. We love her,” she also said. “At the same time, of course, I’m so thankful that we get to dance another week, because this competition means the world to me.”

Her partner Sasha Farber then interjected, explaining, “It’s happened before where there were couples, they were on the top of the leaderboard and they went home, so it just proves that you gotta vote for Ally, vote for your favorite, and anything can happen.”

He went on to speak candidly about what it was like for the pair as they waited for their results to be revealed. “Ally was squeezing my arm so tight, and I was just trying to keep her calm,” he said. “There’s nothing really you can do, but I think, with something like this, hopefully this benefits Ally and people realize, ‘Oh, we need to vote for her.’ So, fingers crossed this will change.”

Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.