July 6 officially marked 20 years since Kelly Monaco was crowned the first-ever winner of Dancing With the Stars, and in honor of the anniversary, she’s looking back at her time on the show. Of course, that includes the turning point in the competition for her, which was when she suffered a wardrobe malfunction while dancing the Samba with pro partner Alec Mazo.
The incident took place during the Week 4 live show. The straps of Monaco’s top came undone and she reacted swiftly, using one hand to hold up the outfit while finishing the dance. She wound up earning the highest score of the night (a 26 out of 30) and received praise from the judges for continuing her routine amid adversity.
“Alec was very strict, and he prepared me for every obstacle,” Monaco told Entertainment Weekly. “We would have whoever was around throw obstacles at us. So, he prepared me for that. But, oh my God, it was so scary. I felt like someone had a laser beam from five miles away and shot my costume. It was a countdown going to live, ‘Five, for, three, pop!’ I was like, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ And then, ‘Two, one, pop!'”
She continued, “I know I get at least five counts of a walk over to Alec, walking toward him for our dance. But I remember looking at the judges, looking at whoever, like, ‘Is there a stop button? Okay, there’s nothing. I just have to go through it.’ So I’m like, ‘Okay, well, I’ll just hold my dress up while I dance.'”
The General Hospital alum praised Mazo for “supporting [her] every step of the way” and said she felt “more confident” during that dance than any others. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba called the moment “magical,” adding, “It was the first time she got out of her head.”
“This is what’s beautiful about mistakes,” Inaba continued. “In the mistake, she had to get out of her head, because she was like, ‘Oh, what do I do now?’ She had to be in the present and that changed everything. It brought out the magic that she wasn’t able to bring out by trying to force it.”
Meanwhile, host Tom Bergeron noted that Monaco “deserved to win” the show from that recovery alone. She did end up going on to win, although it was a bit controversial, as many felt runner-up John O’Hurley was the deserving winner.
“They bleeped it, but [when they said I won], I looked at Tom Bergeron and I said, ‘Are you f**king kidding me?’ It was mind blowing,” Monaco admitted. “It was one of the best feelings in the world.” She ended up returning for the show’s All-Star season in 2012 and coming in third place.
Of her infamous wardrobe malfunction, Monaco also said, “It was the turnaround of my experience with dance and the show and the audience. After that, the audience related to me. Because I was on soap operas for so long, I had only been known as this villain and was only called by my soap name in public. This gave the audience a chance to see the real me in a circumstance where you can either fall flat or rise above.”
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