Valerie Harper Calls ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Elimination A ‘Blessing In Disguise’

Valerie Harper was eliminated from Dancing with the Stars Monday night, but said her exit from the dance competition was a “blessing in disguise.”

DWTS confirmed Harper’s casting on September 3. The Rhoda star was paired with Irish dancer Tristan MacManus, who joined the competition back in season 13.

“I’m sad to leave the group and the people, and the fun, the interactions and the challenges, but my knees are in bad shape. Not terrible, not that I need surgery, but they need a rest,” Harper told E! News after the elimination. “These knees are 74-year-old and they are barking.”

Harper also told TV Guide that she was “very happy” to have danced in the competition for four weeks. She also said she read an article that suggested dancing could be “beneficial” to people with cancer.

“People used to say, ‘Go home, rest, put your feet up’,” she said. “And there are people who are suffering horribly with this disease, with pain in many parts of the body. But I have been extremely lucky. I got through Dancing with the Stars, didn’t die on the floor, or fall… Tristan wouldn’t let me fall. He would throw himself under me and pretend it was a lift.”

Valerie Harper was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in March and told that she had between three to six months to live. She appeared on Today after her diagnosis and said that she chose not to look at her diagnosis like a death sentence.

“It could be a week, it could be three months, it could be several years…I have an intention to live each moment fully. I’m not dying until I do,” she said.

Harper added, “If you die, you’re not a failure. You’re just somebody who had cancer, and that’s the outcome. (You have to keep) your thoughts open to infinite possibility and keep yourself open to miracles.”

In August, neuro-oncologist Jeremy Rudnick said Harper’s brain cancer was “getting pretty close to a remission” and that it “defie[d] the odds.” Dr. Rudnick cautioned that Harper isn’t out of the woods yet, and said that it’s only a matter of time until patients “develop resistance to the therapy.”

Tristan MacManus praised his dance partner and said she made a profound impact on his life:

“Sometimes you get very lucky to do well with your partner. Sometimes you get very lucky in your life to meet someone who can affect (you) more than this (show) could at all. I feel like I’ve been very lucky to get that. And I feel like maybe me life’s a little bit better since I met Valerie Harper.”

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