Spoiler alert: details from Monday’s episode of Dancing with the Stars ahead.
Even the judges were slack-jawed when it was revealed Heather Morris and Maksim Chmerkovskiy were eliminated from Dancing with the Stars on Monday.
“That’s very, very heartwarming,” Morris, 30, told PEOPLE backstage as she held back tears moments after her elimination. “It’s great that everyone was behind me.”
Chmerkovskiy, 37, believes the fact that the entire audience erupted in boos upon hearing the results is proof that viewers probably thought Morris was safe in the reality dance competition and didn’t need their votes.
He told reporters he thinks fans thought “they’re fine, she’s amazing, they’ll be there next week. Lemme throw a few votes here and there just because struggling. That’s exactly the way Sabrina Bryan went home. And the way that Brandy and I got eliminated right before the finale. Those were certainly not deserving exits.”
Morris adds that it’s “bittersweet” for her last dance on the show to be with Chmerkovskiy, whom she’d been partnered with at the beginning of the season but had suffered a calf injury that forced him to sit out three weeks of the competition while Morris danced with troupe member Alan Bernsten.
“It was hard to balance going from Maks to Alan back to Maks,” Morris admitted.
“I felt sad – I felt that there was an opportunity for ‘Maks and Heather’ to develop and build every single week and we got that cut short, added Chmerkovskiy. “I just feel bad it took so long for me to get back, even though this was the fastest I could possibly do. I wish I had been here for those other weeks. Even if it was meant to be that heather got eliminated this week, I still wanted to enjoy the jive and tango and Disney week that I missed. So it’s just sad.”
Morris said she learned a lot about herself while competing on the show, but is looking forward to giving her body a bit of a rest.
“I’m getting a little older. My body just doesn’t work as well,” she said. “When you get older, your back starts to hurt and so it’s just hard to juggle that. So I’m really, like, ‘Let’s go do acting. Let’s really go do that and I’ll go stand and talk to you for a long time and not have to hurt my back.’ ”
Morris revealed she’s written a dance film that she’d like to have DWTS judge Julianne Hough star in but her main goal post-DWTS will be spending time with her sons Elijah, 3, and Owen, 1.
“The time spent away from my kids is hard,” she said. “I love them so much.”
Dancing with the Stars airs Mondays (at 8 a.m. ET) on ABC.