Gilda Kirkpatrick Opens Up About Her ‘Traumatic’ DWTSNZ Experience!

Nobody wants to be the first celebrity voted off from Dancing With the Stars, except Real Housewives of Auckland star Gilda Kirkpatrick. She admits feeling revealed being the first contestant eliminated for the the New Zealand edition of the dancing competitive reality show.

Gilda said she felt totally "relieved" to be released from the grueling training schedule and weekends packed with live shows.

"To be fair, being voted off first sounds worse than what it is," Gilda told Stuff. "It's a relief. I don't have to put up with it anymore. I'm not really good at dancing so I would have preferred to go earlier."

The reality star said that behind the rotation of sparkly outfits and dance routines the judges actually enjoyed, admitted that the whole experience was utterly "traumatic."

Gilda said her ex-husband, multi-millionaire property and investment tycoon James Kirkpatrick, ended-up coaching her via phone calls.

"He's been calling me and supporting me the whole time," Gilda said. "He called me straight after the show and said, 'Congratulations my dear, you are a winner'."

Despite calling quits on their 15-year marriage, the two remain close friends. "He constantly told me I was great and that I should trust myself and have fun. It is just hard to not have a good relationship with him, he is a wonderful man."

Did Gilda enjoyed being on DWTS? In simple terms, no. She said she'd never, ever do the show again. And that's purely down to the fact she couldn't work out her left foot from her right.

"I'm pretty strong, I don't let things get to me so much, but I had to come to terms with the fact that I don't have much control over my coordination," she laughs. "Something as simple as left, right, left, I was battling so that got to me a little bit. I have never had to deal with that."

And that meant that when it came to showtime, the pre-show nerves were crippling. "I was dead scared of the stage," Gilda told Stuff. "It was just so tough, so I am relieved now. And I bet you every person who comes off that show will feel the same."

Her dance partner Shae Mountain said Naz Khanjani is in the running to win the top spot. "To me, Naz impressed me the most out of anything, if you weren't really, really watching, she could have fooled you as a pro-dancer with that tango. She was really on point and so fit."

But Kirkpatrick claims there's no bad feeling and that her favorite part of the show has been bonding with her fellow 12 contestants.

"Dancing is pretty personal and up close and some of the style of dancing requires, even if it is a fake one, a connection, so if two people are single and they are mingling all the time it is a good grounding," she said. "I am pretty sure the ground is there for some people."

Photo Credit: THREE