Kaitlyn Bristowe Talks Mars Petcare Partnership, 'DWTS' Season 31, and Her 'Soft Spot' For Tyra Banks
You know and love Kaitlyn Bristowe from her time on both The Bachelorette and Dancing With the Stars. Outside of her reality TV roots, Bristowe is making a name for herself as an animal advocate. She recently partnered with Mars Petcare to spread the word about the various ways in which how you can get involved in animal advocacy, as well. While chatting about her partnership, Bristowe also took some time to chat about the current season of Dancing With the Stars. In addition to sharing who she thinks will take the Mirrorball Trophy home this season, she also shared her thoughts on a big point of contention amongst fans — Tyra Banks' position as a host.
To spread the word about how people around the country can get involved in this very important endeavor, Mars Petcare launched its largest animal shelter volunteer program ever. Bristowe helped kick this program off by volunteering at the Nashville Humane Association. She also shared with PopCulture.com that there are three key ways in which people can get involved in their own communities — volunteering at animal shelters, fostering and adopting, and sharing information on their social media accounts.
Bristowe even took things a step further recently, as she recalled stepping into action when she saw a dog along on the side of the street while she was driving. She explained how she went to a local PetSmart to see if the animal had a chip, and while he did, they were unable to locate the owner. So, she drove around for three hours and eventually was able to spot the owner. The experience prompted Bristowe to take action just in case something similar happens in the future, as she said, "so now I keep food in my car just for if I'm driving around and there are homeless people with dogs out there and even helping in that way. It's just anything you can."
When Bristowe isn't hard at work as an animal advocate, she's rooting for her Dancing With the Stars family. Of course, she's watching the current season. Even though she's rooting for a number of competitors, she has a soft spot for fellow Bachelorette star Gabby Windey. Since Bristowe is a DWTS champion, having won Season 29 with partner Artem Chigvintsev, she had some key advice to share with Windey as she went on her own dancing journey.
"As soon as I found out she (Windey) was going on, I reached out and just said, 'Here for you through anything,' because it's one of the most challenging things," Bristowe recalled. "Especially coming straight off of another mentally physically exhausting show like the Bachelorette to jump into Dancing with the Stars, especially in a fresh new relationship is really challenging. So, I just told her, 'Here for you, no matter what you need, and get yourself an ice foot bath because you're going to need it.'"
While on the topic of Dancing With the Stars, the talk turned to Banks, who first started as the host of the program during Bristowe's season. As Bristowe has been paying close attention to the current season of the series, she has also seen just how much backlash Banks has received during it. For the Bachelor alum, she's unsure exactly why the host has been met with such vitriol, as she was always a pleasure to work with.
"I have a really soft spot for Tyra because she's such a good person," Bristowe said. "She would call us individually and check in on us every week and see how we were doing and how we were feeling. And I know that was really important to her. And people don't see that or hear about that." She went on to say that it's understandable that people might be averse to change, especially since Tom Bergeron was at the helm for such a long period of time. But, she wants fans to keep something in mind when they're watching the series, "First of all, hosting live television, I dare anyone to try and do it because it is so challenging and you make mistakes and you say things that you regret and it's a really hard job to do ... people are just so quick to jump on what they don't like and what they're not used to and it's really unfortunate."