DWTS: The Next Pro contestant defends elimination after fans call foul on injury

Lauren DuBois Wed, July 29, 2026 at 10:16 PM UTC

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Natalie Jolley is speaking up about her injury and elimiantion from DWTS The Next pro (Image: ABC)

Natalie Jolley has taken to social media to defend her elimination from Dancing With the Stars: The Next Pro after fans questioned the extent of the injury that cut short her time in the competition.

The dancer, 20, was the fourth competitor cut from the ABC competition series, which will end by awarding one of the hopefuls a gig as the newest pro on Dancing With the Stars for the upcoming 35th season.

Her ouster came after an accident during a group rehearsal, and follows another of her competitors being slammed by others for "arrogant" behavior.

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However, fans expressed confusion about her elimination after it was announced on the show, and Natalie, who missed the rest of the episode after the accident, appeared onstage to hug her fellow competitors.

Now, following all of the backlash, Jolley is taking to social media to share more details.

Jolley was accidentally hit in the face by Stephani Sosa during a rehearsal (Image: ABC)

Natalie was hit in the eye as the group tried to rehearse mentor Britt Stewart's routine for the first part of the week's competition.

During the rehearsal, she appeared to misjudge the space around her, and Stephani Sosa's hand and hair both smacked her in the face. Natalie was then taken away in an ambulance as she started showing swelling in her eye and the makings of a bruise.

After the remaining competitors broke into team dances, and a bottom two were chosen, the show revealed that Natalie was the one being cut after she wasn't medically cleared to return to the competition, with Natalie then appearing on stage alongside host Robert Irwin.

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Jolley took to tikTok to address the criticism (Image: TikTok/thenataliejolley)

However, some viewers noted that her eye seemed to have improved, which made her lack of medical clearance confusing to them.

Now, Natalie has taken to TikTok to share photos from her treatment and explain in more detail the injuries she sustained, admitting in her post that she didn't think she'd ever have to defend her elimination.

Over a series of images, she wrote, "When people think your injury was staged on DWTS Next Pro."

She also captioned the post, "Never thought I would need to prove to the internet that I did indeed get smacked hard enough to get a black eye and concussion (first and last photo shows how much I could open my eye for a couple hours after the incident) and for those saying it didn't look bad from the show, they covered it up with makeup! Please be kind and respectful, especially when you don't know the full story behind the scenes."

Fans have expressed skepticism over the severity of her injury (Image: TikTok/Thenataliejolley)

Several fans still commented, admitting they felt the whole thing had been dramatic and weren't sure how her injury had gotten so bad.

"No one thinks it was staged, we think it was dramatic asf," one person wrote.

"I'm sorry you got injured, but an ambulance and concussion was diabolical," another said.

"I'm confused about the concussion tho, getting smacked doesn't cause a concussion. A concussion occurs when the brain violently smacks against the skull," a third questioned.

"Not sure why she even needs to stand up for herself when it was the medical team and the show that didn't clear her to return to competition," a fourth added.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”