
Why This DANCING WITH THE STARS Pro Is Glad She Left the Show
By Movieguide® Contributor
Ex-DANCING WITH THE STARS pro Lindsay Arnold left the show nearly three years ago, and looking back, she’s glad she left at the height of her fame to focus on her family instead.
Arnold left the show in September 2022 after being a pro dancer/coach for 10 seasons. She couldn’t be more proud of the decision as it has allowed her to spend time with her young kids — time she knows she couldn’t have gotten back.
“A lot of my priorities and where I wanted to spend my time… it just shifted,” Arnold told PEOPLE. “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.”
Wanting to be able to focus solely on her family, Arnold made sure that when she left the show, she had accomplished everything she had set out to do.
“I did want to have a sense of accomplishment within the show knowing that, ‘Okay, 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,” she said.
Meanwhile, the decision to leave Hollywood for Utah came from Arnold’s desire to give her kids a normal upbringing, rather than living in the LA bubble. She returned to her hometown to give them a quieter start to life.
“To be honest, I actually never, ever loved or embraced Hollywood in a sense of where I’d want to live. [I] loved everything about what it offered 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,” Arnold said. “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.”
Arnold now shares two daughters with her husband Samuel Lightner, the second of which was born in 2023, after she left DANCING WITH THE STARS.
READ MORE: FORMER DWTS PRO LINDSAY ARNOLD ANNOUNCES SHE’S EXPECTING HER SECOND CHILD
Though she’s not on DWTS anymore, her younger sister, Rylee Arnold, now serves as a coach. She teamed up with Team USA gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik last season.
After the duo was voted off the show, Lindsay celebrated all their hard work.
“I don’t have the words to describe how special it was watching @ryleearnold1 and @stephen_nedoroscik ALL season long and especially last night in the Finale,” she wrote on Instagram. “I have seen first hand how much genuine effort and care these two put into every single performance they did and watching them create the perfect freestyle and get their first perfect score was the most incredible ending to their season and I could not be more proud 😭🫶🏻 love you both and you are winners in my heart 🫶🏻”