Melissa Gilbert Reflects On Dancing Journey With Maksim Chmerkovskiy: ‘We Were Fire & Fire’

Melissa Gilbert was one of two celebrities eliminated on Tuesday’s “Dancing with the Stars,” but she knows she leaves the show having made a particular kind of “DWTS” history.

“I will forever be remembered as the woman who held their butts in my hand,” she laughed with Access Hollywood on Tuesday night, referring to her Monday trio dance number that ended with Melissa’s palms gripping the bottoms of Maksim and Val Chmerkovskiy.

“But also, the high note was the fact that the dances both went so extraordinarily well last night,” Melissa continued of getting her best scores of the season this week. “I really enjoyed every second of it and was in my skin and in my feet and connected in a way I hadn’t been until last night and that was great.”

The actress said she leaves the competition with a feeling of accomplishment.

“I feel like I’ve achieved something that I never imagined was possible. I cannot believe that this body did what it did and is in the shape that it’s in,” the actress, who once suffered from a broken back, and had a strong recovery from surgery, said. “Just the journey itself has been incredible, you know?”

Maks, in particular, enjoyed the rollercoaster ride of the season, which saw highs and lows.

“We had a lot of ups and downs and… I pity other couples because their season goes like this, you know, pre-ordained,” Maks said of the predictability, many of the pairs still remaining on the show have had throughout the season. “With us, you had no idea what was happening. You had no idea if we were going to go through [to] next week, starting with Week 2, and that made it for an incredible, exciting, exciting 15 weeks.”

Reflecting on Maks’ words, Melissa said the two were likeminded souls.

“I was thinking about our partnership just now while Maks was talking and we talked about how some people are opposites, they’re like oil and water and, and we were just fire and fire all the time,” she said.