Harry Jowsey and Rylee Arnold are having a blast getting to know each other on “Dancing With the Stars.”
Just weeks into the competition, the “Too Hot to Handle” star has already formed a special bond with his dance partner’s entire family, even recruiting them to film some epic TikToks.
“They’re so special. It’s just such an incredible family. There’s not one bad person, like, I’m trying to figure it out,” Jowsey exclusively gushed to Pvnew in the ballroom Tuesday night.
“I’m like, ‘Who’s got a bad bone here,’ because if you meet my family, they’re all sausages,” he joked.
“I was saying to Rylee, they really hit the family lottery. They’re just all so special and they’re all beautiful, which is crazy. Like where’s the ugly kid? I need to find one.”
Ahead of their performance Tuesday night, Rylee’s older sister – former “DWTS” pro Lindsay Arnold – shared a sweet video via Instagram Stories of her 2-year-old daughter, Sage, exclaiming, “Rylee and Harry sooo slay.”
“I’ve taught her slay, and she thinks we’re slay, so we are slay,” Rylee said of her adorable niece. “Sage, thank you!”
The other Arnold siblings, Jensen and Brynley, have been equally supportive of Rylee and Jowsey’s partnership since premiere night, taking to social media to encourage others to vote.
Rylee spoke about how “special” it has been to specifically have Lindsay’s consistent support each week as she continues her journey as a first-time pro on the dance competition series.
“She’s like my emotional support. Like, I see her in the audience and I’m like, ‘OK, I can do this,’” the “DWTS: Juniors” alum marveled.
“She’s the best. She’s been super supportive and I love her so much. She’s like my second mom.”
During “Most Memorable Year” night, Rylee, 18, and Jowsey, 26, performed a contemporary routine to “Keep Your Head Up” by Andy Grammer.
They received a combined score of 18/30 from judges Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli, placing them at the bottom of the leaderboard and in danger of elimination.
“I was very deflated, very defeated,” Jowsey admitted to us after the show. “Seven days a week, you learn this dance, doing the lifts and it’s really hard. And then you all work up for this moment just to get kind of s–t on. So it sucks. But yeah, that’s the beauty of it all.”
Rylee noted that she’s just happy they advanced to another week in the competition, telling us they’re going to act like this week “never” happened.
“We just continue on and continue to work hard,” she said. “Not every week is gonna be perfect and we’re not gonna get perfect critiques every single week. And that’s just how things are. That’s just how it is.”
Jowsey’s performance was dedicated to 2020, the year “everything changed” with his reality TV debut on Netflix’s “Too Hot to Handle.” Amid all the success, he found himself in a “broken” place due to all the harsh online criticism he was receiving – including death threats directed at his family and friends.
“It was really scary. It was a really dark time and I didn’t know who to call on, because none of my friends had been through that stuff,” he recalled, adding that his friends ended up taking his phone as he embarked on a “big spiritual weekend” to escape it all.
“As I turned my phone off, it didn’t matter, because everyone that mattered around me loved me and that was the most important bit.”
“Dancing With the Stars,” co-hosted by Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro, airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and Disney+, with new episodes streaming the following day on Hulu.
