…and the performer, who introduced the world to girlfriend Kylie Prew in 2021, will be the first-ever contestant to have a same-sex dance partner on the show.
“When I got the email to be on Dancing With the Stars, I didn’t even read the whole email, I just replied yes,” JoJo said on E!’s Daily Pop. “And then when I read it, they asked me, they said, ‘We want to give JoJo the chance if she wants to do, to dance with a female instead of a male. But if she wants to dance with a male and keep it traditional, we want her to be as comfortable and have the best experience ever,’ and immediately I was like, that is so groundbreaking, history, it’s never been done before and it needed to be done.”
In 2010, the Israeli version of Dancing With the Stars was the first adaptation in the BBC-owned franchise to feature a same-sex couple, a pair of women. Producers on the ABC series had contemplated having a same-sex couple on the show in the U.S. but the idea never came to fruition…until now.
JoJo told E! that her girlfriend joked she shouldn’t get too close to the pro dancer paired with her and dropped a hint about the identity of her ballroom partner. “Before I went to the first rehearsal, Ky tells me, ‘Tell her, tell Jenna she needs to leave room for Jesus.'”