Katja Mia has spoken about the toll Dancing with the Stars was starting to take alongside working her full-time job, saying she was "starting to burn out a little bit" after she exited the show during Sunday night's quarter-final.
The Six O'Clock Show host and her pro partner Ervinas Merfeldas took part in the dance-off against Blu Hydrangea and Simone Arena, with the judges choosing to save Blu for next week's semi-final.
Given that Mia and Merfeldas had scored a perfect 10 in the show, many viewers were upset to see her sent home from the competition.
In a post-show interview, Mia was asked if she felt it was a "fair decision". She said: "It's totally up to the judges. I know that we both put in our best work this week. We got our first 10 this week, so I knew straight away it was going to be a tough dance-off.
"I respect what they had to say and the scores that they gave. I can only be happy to have made it this far."
"It's not like we were at the bottom two of the leaderboard, but that's the thing - it's the votes that count, the votes are so important. That's an element that when you are putting in all the work, you kind of forget that there's the public element too," she added.
Speaking to Jennifer Zamparelli on 2fm on Monday morning, Mia said she "truly didn't expect" to make it this far in the competition.
"I couldn't do any sort of a lift when I began with this experience, so to have done what we've done so far, I am very impressed and I'm proud of us," she said.
Pro dancer Merfeldas was full of praise for his celebrity partner, saying: "You've shocked everybody with what you've done on this show. Making the quarter-final is ridiculous.
"It surprised me from the very start how receptive she was to everything and how she picked up stuff very quickly. You made the hard stuff look easy. You were the definition of a natural performer. It blew me away."
The TV star has had a hectic few months since landing her role as The Six O'Clock Show host with Virgin Media in November, while in training for Dancing with the Stars - declaring it "a crazy time".
"It's been 15 weeks of double jobbing it," she said. "The only time I had a week off was when I got Covid before Christmas.
"I just got my job in November, it was a new role and I wanted to commit to that fully as well. I put my all into it - to the point that I probably was starting to burn out a little bit.
"I'm very proud of myself and proud of Ervina. He put up with me because there were days where I was tired and I was probably very cranky!"
She added: "If go on to do anything I can say to myself - you've done Dancing with the Stars, everything else will seem so minimal.
"It's not as easy as it looks – you have to get ready to work when you when you put your yourself forward for a show like this. It will stand to me with other challenges that come in my life."
Mia faced body shaming comments during her time on the show, which she said encouraged her to go further in the competition.
"I was representing a whole massive cohort in Ireland of women that are curvy. It's such a common size here in this country but we don't see it enough in the media. A lot of those women sent me so many messages of support," she shared.
"I felt like from that point onwards, I'm not just doing it for me - I'm also doing it for everyone else. It encouraged me to keep pushing myself and keep going further, we did so many lifts after that. Once you work hard enough and apply yourself to the technique, you can go upside down and lift your feet in the air!"
When asked who she would like to see lift that glitterball trophy, Mia was unambiguous.
"That's an easy one though – Laura Fox," she said. "We had such a special bond, we shared a dressing room every week since December. I love her and her dedication to this entire competition has just been amazing to see.
"She's so deserving and she's the bubbliest person alive so... but that's not saying I don’t love everyone else - I definitely do. But I'm going for my girl."
Dancing with the Stars continues on Sunday at 6.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
