Kayleigh Trappe has her eyes on the Dancing With The Stars glitterball but even if she doesn’t lift the trophy, she feels like she’s already won.
The 29-year-old comedian has showed she’s more than just her impeccable TikTok talents and has proven herself on the dancefloor as well by waltzing her way into the final with her pro partner Ervinas Merfeldas.
The lip sync star is the only female to have made it through to the last round as she is set to battle it out with three other DWTS finalists Jack Woolley, Rhys McClenaghan, and Danny O’Carroll on Sunday night.
However, Kayleigh has said that win or lose, the show has given her so much more than she expected; it’s brought her family closer together, helped her overcome her body confidence issues from the past, and given her such close friendship with one contestant that they’ve booked a holiday for next week!
Kayleigh said: ‘ I went into it thinking it was all going to be bells and whistles, entertainment, dance a bit, do a little bit of that. I didn’t realise how it was going to change me as a person – I didn’t realise how much it would help me.’
The Monaghan native said she feels the show has brought her family ‘so much closer’ as well as propelling her out of her comfort zone. Kayleigh said she is used to ‘playing characters and putting on wigs and never really being myself’. But in one of her most vulnerable moments on the show, during week five for contemporary, she struggled ‘to let go’ and ‘just be [herself]’.
She said: ‘When I’m playing a character, I am as confident as ever because I know I’m not being myself. When I’m told to be myself, my confidence just goes and that comes back from a history of a lot of body confidence issues.’
The TikToker has previously spoken about how she lacked confidence and struggled with her weight into adolescence and her college years. She reached a turning point in her life about six years ago when she developed a love for exercise and healthy eating and lost six stone before getting involved with drama again and launching her social media career.
Kayleigh worried that going into the DWTS competition, involving hours of dance rehearsals and being on TV, she might become ‘obsessed’ with how her body looked but instead she has found herself in the ‘best kind of mindset’.
She said: ‘I haven’t worn a fitness watch since Christmas. I haven’t counted a calorie… we eat all around us. I’m so glad that although you’re on TV all the time, you’re wearing fancy dresses, you’re trying to look your best, that I haven’t put pressure on myself to do so because Kayleigh a few years ago would have done that.
‘Naturally I’ve just become fitter, you can’t really help that when you’re doing so much rehearsals every week, but it has happened by complete accident. I’m looking after my body really well.’
She’s had huge support from her family and those cheering her on in Monaghan, but person who has been a consistent figure cheering her on in the audience nearly every week is her boyfriend Tom.
It’s a ‘relatively new relationship’, as she met him on a night out last year, but he’s showed up to support her throughout the show and she revealed he has even appeared in a couple of her TikTok videos.
Kayleigh says he’s been a ‘great support’ to her social media career but with his job as a teacher he prefers to be behind the scenes and she’s not overthinking it.
She said: ‘It is a case of trying to find a balance of keeping my private life private and my public life public. But the same time, it’s something I really haven’t thought about, we just kind of go with the flow.
Pic ;Kyran O’Brien/kobpix
‘It is still a relatively new relationship, but I’m absolutely willing to flaunt and taunt and all that kind of things and he comes down all the time. He’s in my videos I just don’t point him out – I know now everyone’s going to go looking!’ she joked.
She will be bringing Tom with her as she jets off on a couple’s holiday to Tenerife next week with her new ‘best buddy’, Irish taekwondo Olympian and fellow DWTS contestant, Jack Woolley, and his partner, Dave.
Kayleigh shared that her and Jack have become ‘very close’ over the course of the show, with a running ‘in joke’ where the athlete shouts ‘Yup Monaghan!’ ahead of her performance every week.
She said: ‘Jack and I have become the best buddies. I didn’t know him personally beforehand but just the craic he brings to it we’ve constantly joking and laughing.
Kayleigh continued: ‘We’re going to go to Tenerife next week we just said we both needed a break… His partner Dave and my partner Tom and the two of us are going, and I think possibly Tina, Danny [O’Carroll]’s girlfriend. Danny’s away but she might come as well – we said it’s an open invitation for anybody, so very much looking forward to that at least.’
If she wins on Sunday night, she may have to book on an extra suitcase to take the glitterball trophy with her but either way, she’s leaving with a glittering pile of new memories and friends.
Kayleigh joked: ‘My trophy cabinet’s gathering dust so it would be nice to have something to show but at the same time, I’m going to come away with so much from the competition.
‘The glitterball would be the cherry on top but it’s been fantastic either way.’
