Amanda Byram has praised Jennifer Zamparelli, as she opened up about her departure from Dancing with the Stars.
The presenter revealed she wouldn’t return for the third series of the hit programme last summer, after co-presenting the show with Nicky Byrne for two years.
At the time, Amanda shared a statement online in which she said: “Due to personal and professional commitments both in London and LA, I won’t be joining the team for season 3 of DWTS Ireland”.
The 45-year-old was replaced by RTÉ 2FM’s Jennifer Zamparelli, who was a huge hit with fans.
Speaking to the Irish Mirror about leaving the show, Amanda admitted that she couldn’t watch the new series because she was abroad, but praised Jen on what she had seen on social media.
“The only thing I can catch is Twitter the day after, looking at Jen’s dress. I believe it was brilliant. She doesn’t need advice from me. She did an amazing job – she owned it.”
“That is Jen’s style and she really embraced that and I really love the fact that she went the other way, rather than ballgowns which I did. But I missed watching it. For me, I loved being there and watching the dancing.”
Amanda also opened up about her decision to leave the programme: “It was a really hard decision for me because I love the show. It’s an amazing format.”
“I was working back home in Dublin and I got to spend three months of the year here,” she continued.
“But it was a massive commitment. And because of all the other stuff I had going on out there, I just couldn’t be here.”
“It was hard because I had to choose and so it came to July or August last year and my agent asked if I was going to do it because [DWTS chief Larry Bass] needed to know.”
“So I had to make a commitment and stick to it. They totally understood. They were brilliant about it. They wished me the best. At the end of the day it is not rocket science, it is a TV show, it’s entertainment,” she finished.
