'Dancing with the Stars' pro doesn't regret leaving Hollywood for Utah at height of fame
It's been nearly three years since "Dancing with the Stars" pro Lindsay Arnold announced her exit, and she hasn't regretted it one bit.
In a new interview, the professional dancer who starred in the dance competition series for 10 seasons, opened up about her decision to leave the show at the height of finding mega fame and success.
"A lot of my priorities and where I wanted to spend my time ... it just shifted," she told People magazine. "My mindset shifted. Time goes 10 times faster when you have kids, and I just know that this time is so precious and something that you don't get back."
"I did want to have a sense of accomplishment within the show knowing that, ‘OK, if we do have kids and I don't come back, do I feel like I fulfilled what I hope to do?’ I did feel like I was at that point. We honestly were probably past the point of being ready. We were like, ‘OK, we really want this now,’ and I'm glad we waited for that time because it felt so right for us."
Arnold, who shares two daughters, Sage, 4, and June, almost 2, with husband Samuel Cusick, said the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles never appealed to her.
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"To be honest, I actually never, ever loved or embraced Hollywood in a sense of where I'd want to live," she said. "Loved everything about what it offered to me, what it did for my career, what I was able to do out there, but I was actually always the pro that, in between seasons, [who] would sneak back to Utah to be with my family. This has always been where I know I want to raise my family."
"Growing up in Utah, the city life was never for me," she added. "But like I said, I know that my life would not be where it is without that time, and so I am so grateful."
These days, Arnold continues to gain traction on social media, from her workout tutorials to her lifestyle vlogs.
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"When I decided to step away from ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ I didn't have this grand plan of, ‘OK, this is my career. This is where we're going.’ I just knew I wanted to do things that were authentic to me, but that can be really scary because you just don't know how that will be received," she said of becoming an influencer.
"At the time, I had a social media following for people who only watched me and followed me because of ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ That was scary, because I'm like, are they just going to hate me if I'm like, ‘Sorry, guys, I'm not doing it anymore. I'm going to be a mom’? Maybe people hate moms. But it's been so cool because every step of the way, by just truly being myself, sharing what I'm doing, it's naturally evolved my career and my engagement, my community in the most perfect way."
While Arnold said she still misses the show, she doesn't regret her decision to leave.
"There are so many things I miss about the show," she said. "I miss all my friends on the show. The community, the family, it is real. The second my sister hops onto the show, they're treating her like a little sister because it's family."
"What I don't miss is it is a full-on time commitment. If you want to be good at your job, if you want to do well, it's a 24/7 job," she continued. "And when you're a mom, that's a 24/7 job, so that battle is really difficult."
"It's felt like a very natural progression for me, which I'm grateful for because, of course, there was always those moments when I did choose to step away that first season of like, ‘Am I going to regret this?’" she said. "I'm really grateful to say that I haven't. I haven't regretted my decisions one step of the way," she added.