It has not been a good season for Dancing with the Stars contestants. Earlier this fall, contestant Kim Zolciak was forced to drop out of the competition series after suffering a mini-stroke. Now, health problems have plagued other Season 21 contestant Tamar Braxton. The reality TV star had to withdraw this week after learning she was suffering from major blood clots.
In a social media message to fans, Braxton explained her Dancing with the Stars withdrawal this week.
After yesterday's final #dwts performance I went back to the hospital (after the doctors didn't want me to leave in the first place) only to find out that I don't have pneumonia but something way more serious and that is having several P.E.'s (blood clots in both sides of my lungs) As you all know I will be the first to always encourage anyone to push through any obstacle that comes along one's way. But in this case, my health is my current obstacle.
Dancing with the Stars isn’t exactly known for being a cakewalk for contestants. It was only a few days ago that other Season 21 contestant Bindi Irwin revealed that she is suffering from one of the grossest injuries ever thanks to appearing on the hit ABC series week after week: her toenails have started breaking off, leaving her feet to bleed. Just a couple of seasons ago, Alfonso Ribeiro also competed through an extremely difficult groin injury. Plus, injuries have even sidelined some of the professional dancers, before. However, blood clots are not something to take lightly.
Braxton hadn’t been feeling well on set earlier this week. She and her partner Valentin Chmerkovskiy were judged on their dress rehearsal performance earlier this week. She actually ended up powering through, making it back to the show and performing a group dance with fellow contestant Nick Carter. However, her problems were clearly a lot more serious than she thought, and Tamar ultimately decided to exit Dancing with the Stars. Because she did manage to compete, this week DWTS actually saw two exits, as Alexa PenaVega was ultimately eliminated from the series just shortly before Tamar Braxton withdrew.
Obviously, we hope that Tamar Braxton has a speedy recovery and gets through her blood clot issues with no further complications. We also hope the rest of Season 21 manages to hit the air without further health issues and complications for the many determined contestants. There are four contestants left in Season 21--Nick Carter, Bindi Irwin, Carlos PenaVega and Alek Skarlatos--and the competition is getting fierce. You can tune in to see who continues pushing forward when Dancing with the Stars airs on Monday nights at 8 p.m. ET, only on ABC.
