Danielle Fishel’s little boy wasn’t a fan of his mom’s dedication to her salsa routine.
Indeed, the Boy Meets World alum revealed that during her time competing on season 34 of Dancing with the Stars, her 6-year-old son Adler Lawrence—whom she shares with husband Jensen Karp—told his teacher that she had died.
“I got a call from Adler’s school and it’s his teacher,” Danielle, 44, explained on the Nov. 10 episode of her Pod Meets World podcast. “She says, ‘We had a little bit of an issue with Adler, and we wanted to talk to you about it. He’s been having a little bit of trouble self-starting some of his work, and so I asked him what’s going on? He told us that my mom died.”
But that wasn’t the end of his startling confession. Adler also shared that he “was feeling very stressed” about his dad’s future, as he “got fired from his job” for inputting “a lot of information into the computer wrong.”
The Girl Meets World star clarified that “none of that is true,” but her son’s teacher was more concerned about Danielle’s sudden death hoax. After all, she and her partner Pasha Pashkov were still actively competing on DWTS until their elimination in the Nov. 4 episode.
“The teacher was like, ‘Well, why don’t you tell me more about that?’ Because she didn't want to shut him down,” Danielle continued. “He kept going, but then at some point, he said, ‘Well, maybe that's not true,’ and then moved on.’”
This revelation shocked Danielle, as her dad Rick Fishel had previously told her that Adler and his younger brother Keaton Joseph, 4, were “thriving” since she left for the Los Angeles-based competition earlier this year. However, it wasn’t until she picked up her oldest son from school that she realized that her absence was affecting him.
“He bursts into tears and says, ‘I hate this job! Why did you take this job? All you do is dance, dance, dance, dance,’” she recalled of Adler’s reaction. “You never get to hang out with me and Keaton anymore. I want you to quit. Are you going to quit or not?’”
Danielle noted that she told him “No, because this job will be over by Thanksgiving” to which he stormed off into his room. Ultimately, the duo calmly talked about the situation, but she admitted that they’re “still working” on addressing how he coped with her not being “present” at home.
But now that the former Dish host has left the ballroom floor, she can rebuild her relationship with her kids—and give her time on the dance competition a final send off.
“I have such a wide range of emotions,” Danielle said of her elimination in the Nov. 5 episode of the Pod Meets World podcast. “It couldn’t have gone any better. I’m so lucky, just so, so lucky that Pasha was my partner.”
She continued, “I feel so extremely positive about everything we did. I look back on every week as a special, individual, unique little moment in time that I’ll remember forever.”
Keep reading for a closer look at the duos competing on season 34 of DWTS…
Baron Davis
Partnered with Britt Stewart
Jennifer Affleck
Partnered with Jan Ravnik
Alix Earle
Partnered with Valentin Chmerkovski
Dylan Efron
Partnered with Daniella Karagach
Corey Feldman
Partnered with Jenna Johnson
Elaine Hendrix
Partnered with Alan Bersten
Robert Irwin
Partnered with Witney Carson
Jordan Chiles
Partnered with Ezra Sosa
Scott Hoying
Partnered with Rylee Arnold
Whitney Leavitt
Partnered with Mark Ballas
Hilaria Baldwin
Partnered with Gleb Savchenko
Andy Richter
Partnered with Emma Slater
Danielle Fishel
Partnered with Pasha Pashkov