- Harry Jowsey thinks rumors he's dating his "DWTS" pro partner Rylee Arnold are "funny."
- "I think me and Rylee are closer and stronger than ever," he said.
Reality TV star Harry Jowsey doesn't have much time to worry about the rumors he's dating his "Dancing With the Stars" pro partner Rylee Arnold as they enter the eighth week of the competition.
In an interview with Insider ahead of Tuesday's Whitney Houston night, Jowsey said he found the speculation "funny" but can't get too preoccupied with it at this stage in the competition.
"I try and ignore it all because I just want to focus on the dancing. If I get distracted with dating stuff and all that stuff, then I'm probably not going to be a good dancer," Jowsey said.
"I'm kind of bad at dating as well," he admitted, adding that he's not dating anyone at all right now.
Jowsey, who was previously engaged to "Too Hot to Handle" season one costar Francesca Farago, was most recently in a tumultuous relationship with "Too Hot to Handle" season three star Georgia Hassarati that ended in 2022.
Jowsey isn't a natural dancer, and the judges' scores constantly reflect that and land him towards the bottom of the leaderboard. But he's a fan favorite and a vibrant performer nonetheless, so fan votes have prevented Jowsey from being eliminated week after week.
Now that we're past the halfway point of the competition, most of the celebrities' dancing skills are sharp and advanced. The "Too Hot To Handle" star admitted his connection with Arnold is changing as the pressure to improve heats up.
"I think me and Rylee are closer and stronger than ever," he said.
As beloved as he is by his fans, Jowsey admits that the negative comments he reads on social media do contribute to his nerves before performing in front of the live audience.
"I feel like sometimes I get a little bit worked up. I'm like, 'Oh my God, I'm going to make a sausage of myself. All these people are going to be watching. Everyone's going to hate me online,'" he said. "You get in your head a little bit about it, and then you get worried about the steps."
According to Jowsey, his pro partner helps get him out of that mindset. "But Rylee and I connect, then I'm like, 'Okay, it's fine. It's just us doing this. We're just out here,'" he said.
Jowsey and Arnold will be performing a Viennese Waltz to Houston's hit "I Have Nothing" for their individual dance on Tuesday night. They'll be performing a rumba to her song "One Moment In Time" in a dance-off round against Alyson Hannigan and Sasha Farber.
Jowsey said he's hoping that slower dances will show viewers and judges a new side of him.
"I really have to bring it and listen to the lyrics and really channel the feelings so that people can feel it as well," he said.
The reality star hasn't stopped trying to improve his technical dancing skills, and he's not letting Arnold play to his charm in her choreography to get them through anymore.
"I'm really trying to get Rylee to be a perfectionist because it's at the point now where we really have to focus on the scores and focus on getting up the leaderboard," Jowsey said. "I don't want to keep letting people down, so we're really trying to perfect it. I've been really hard on myself this week."
"Dancing With the Stars" airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. on ABC and streams live on Disney+.