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The Daily Dish

Amber Rose's Dancing with the Stars Partner Says, "We Need More People like Amber"

#DWTS pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy spoke to us ahead of Amber's elimination this week.

By Jocelyn Vena
Amber Pleads the Fifth, A Lot!

Amber Rose's time on Dancing with the Stars has come to an end. After a memorable and somewhat controversial tenure on the series, the TV personality was eliminated from the show on Monday night after dancing one last time to "Bla Bla Bla Cha Cha Cha" with her partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

The Daily Dish spoke to Maks last week, and he opened up about vying for the Mirrorball trophy alongside Amber. "Just like Amber's life, it's pretty crazy," he said. "I think it was a great pairing. We both have kind of similar mindsets and kind of have similar upbringings in, I think, a lot of instances, and it shows in the way we communicate and how we work together," he shared ahead of the pair's elimination. "It's been difficult physically, but definitely incredible. One of the best seasons I had in terms of how much fun I'm having and interested I am in doing this job."

Still, during our conversation with him last week, he shared that the couple knew that they had to work to keep their standing on the series. "I think, you know don't get me wrong, I believe in Amber and believe we have a chance just like everybody else," he said. "We're a bit of a dark horse in this competition. I think in the beginning we came out strong and then people sort of looked at us like, 'Well you know what? Bless their hearts. They're struggling.' Whereas someone else gets 30s and 29s and 28s, we've never gotten better than three 8s and even that was like, 'Wow, that's amazing.' And so for me, my focus is not to compete with others. My focus is to keep doing what it is that we set out to do and get to a point where she can come out and do a performance nobody expected because now we're strong enough and now we're good enough."

As you might recall, just weeks before they were eliminated, Amber and DWTS judge Julianne Hough got into a slight war of words regarding what Amber felt was body shaming from the dance pro. While they eventually ended the beef, Maks reflected on it seeing the positive in that event.

"To be honest with you, I don't think we got caught up in anything," he said. "Something that was said and we acknowledged it in the way that we acknowledged it. Amber and I had a conversation. She asked me what I thought of this and where this is coming from. I gave her my opinion. We both made a decision to not let it affect us and that maybe this is a bit of blessing in disguise. This allowed for Amber to have an opportunity to say what she is here for, why she's here, and why she's doing the show. And maybe without this sort of controversy there would not have been such a clear spotlight on her saying it. And also the way it happened right after her dance, her being out of breath and having done the best dance of the season so far, I'm very happy that it did happen, because she pulled through in her job this week and also was able to speak from the heart."

Maks was quick to point out that the controversy faded as quickly as it erupted. "We've never seen what was known as 'the controversy,' quote unquote, be put down so fast," he said. "It just went away immediately."

During their time together on the show, Maks even stepped out to support Amber at her SlutWalk earlier this month in L.A. He applauded her for her ability to speak up on issues she believes in.

"If you get to talk to her, she'll say she didn't look for fame. It happened to her by virtue of whatever events in her life," he said. "It was just like all the people in her neighborhood trying to make it and the choices were made based on the surroundings and social status, we'll call it that. So because she got out and she was able to create something, an empire of herself of her own brand as a person, she represents a lot of people and so to see her actually carry that flag and work hard to put together events such as those... it just is beautiful to watch. And we need more of that. I think we need more people like Amber to represent people that Amber represents and speaks on behalf of."

Below, Amber dishes about rumors during a vintage moment from Watch What Happens Live.

After Show: Amber on the Craziest Rumor
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