Dancing queen Jazz's tears: ‘THEY WANTED ME TO FAIL!'

The DWTS champion reveals her behind-the-scenes struggles

- Sebastian van der Zwan

From the very first episode of Dancing With The Stars NZ, there was no doubt in our minds that Jazz Thornton had what it took to get to the grand final. But the mental health advocate reveals there were dancers who had it in for her – and their criticism almost sabotaged her winning performance!

“I heard comments from people in the dance community that I sucked at Latin, so when it came to dances like the cha-cha-cha and paso doble, it really got in the way of my training,” Jazz, 27, reveals to Woman’s Day. “I got into a mindset that I sucked and I wasn’t good at it – and I don’t like doing anything I’m not excellent at. I let that self-doubt creep in.”

The best-selling author describes it as “a really difficult time” in which she was “really, really hard on myself”. Jazz adds, “I was a big ball of stress every week because there were such high expectations and we were in such a high-stress environment. I’d just start crying out of nowhere. There were definitely times where I was struggling mentally.”