‘Exhausting, But So Worth It’: DWTS’ Jenna Johnson Talks Motherhood
By Movieguide® Contributor
DANCING WITH THE STARS’ Jenna Johnson is opening up about balancing her career and motherhood.
“It’s an adjustment for sure, but it’s so rewarding,” Johnson told PEOPLE. “I think I’m so excited to be back on the show. And then getting to come home to my sweet, chunky baby is just a dream. So I feel I truly have the best of both worlds right now. It’s exhausting, but it’s so worth it.”
Johnson and husband Val Chmerkovskiy welcomed son Rome in January of this year.
“We actually have had a boy and a girl name picked out for three years now,” she said before Rome’s birth. “Val actually picked out the name for our boy, so we have it.”
In an Instagram post shortly after his birth, Johnson wrote, “Thank you for bursting my heart wide open and showing me what unconditional love is. Mommy and Daddy love you so much!!!!”
The couple spoke about what it’s like to rejoin DWTS as parents and if it’s changed their perspectives on competing.
“It hasn’t,” Chmerkovskiy told Good Morning America. “I think being on the show is an incredible privilege before being a parent, after being a parent. Now obviously, you kind of appreciate a lot of things in a different way. But, you know, my commitment to the show hasn’t changed. It’s just fun to have our kid now see us on TV, kind of witness what we do and then you recognize how special it is what we do, when you have someone at home watching you.”
“I think for me, I took last season off obviously ’cause I was pregnant, and so coming back this season … I had so much pride in wanting to show [my son] what I do,” Johnson added. “And so I really feel like — because I have to leave him for rehearsals and whatnot — I feel like I’m really doing this for him. To show him that mommy and daddy can work and they’re pretty good at what they do. So, I’m excited to have him watch us.”