Reality TV shows like Dancing with the Stars and The Challenge are no walk in the park — especially if you’re competing on them while pregnant.
Over the years, multiple stars have shared pregnancy announcements either before, during or after their appearances on reality TV. Pro dancer Peta Murgatroyd, for example, won season 22 of Dancing with the Stars while expecting. Ten years later, fellow pro Witney Carson revealed she would be competing in season 35 of the show while in her second trimester.
When asked if there were any dances she might have to nix, she didn’t seem too concerned.
“I would assume the more intimate rumba I would probably need to skip,” she told PEOPLE in September 2026. “But I could try and finagle something.”
Here are nine stars who competed on reality TV while pregnant.
Witney Carson
Carson is competing with Guillermo Rodriguez in season 35 of Dancing with the Stars while in her second trimester.
“So my plan is to, as long as the baby is healthy and as long as I’m doing well, then we will compete again on this season onDancing with the Stars, which is very exciting because I love being a mom more than anything, and I also love to dance,” she told PEOPLE in August 2026. “I love both. And so if I can do both, then that’s what I want to do.”
Season 35 of DWTS is actually the second time that Carson has been pregnant on the show. While partnered with Wayne Brady in season 31, the pro revealed she was pregnant during the semi-finals. She then decided to step away from season 32 to spend more time with her family, and returned to DWTS in season 33.
Love Island alumni Olihours after filming wrapped on the finale of season 41 of The Challenge. After their son Atlas was born in November 2025, Kaiser shared a video of the moment she found out about her pregnancy on Instagram
“We just finished [The Challenge] final and we’re looking kind of rough, I’m feeling rough as well,” Kaiser says in the video. “I’m scared, I can’t look at it, oh my God no.”
Campbell, who was also a finalist on the reality series, then reads her the results: “Congratulations, you just won a final, pregnant.”
In the caption, Kaiser wrote, “lol we can laugh at this now… I was indeed pregnant [seven] weeks to be exact. No I didn’t know. I was not pregnant going into the season lol and yes it was a hugeeee surprise.”
DeLeesa St. Agathe
Deleesa St. Agathe not only wonThe Circle’ssecond season in 2021 after competing as a catfish version of her husband, Trevor; she also found out she was pregnant with their second child while filming.
“I took a pregnancy test while I was in The Circle in the apartment. I found out that I was freaking pregnant and it was crazy,” she told PEOPLE in May 2021 shortly before welcoming their daughter, Tori Sky.
“When I say I’m the most competitive person in the world, I’m like, ‘Okay that’s gonna go to the back end because I can’t do anything about it now. I’m not gonna tell Trevor. My mind has to stay in the game,’ ” she added. “I didn’t want to take a pregnancy test because I just knew. I know my body.”
Melissa Reeves
Melissa Reeves left The Challenge: Total Madness during the show’s finale after she realized she might be pregnant. She gave birth in May 2020 to a daughter she named Vienna.
“So why is @viennasimpsonreeves called Vienna?” she wrote on Instagram in July 2020. “It was at the top of that mountain in Austria when I first realized I may be pregnant.”
Reeves also posted on X when the finale aired and explained her decision to leave the show. “When my body told me to stop. I had to. I hate quitting but i 100% made the right choice,” she wrote.
Daniella Karagach
Dancing with the Stars pro Daniella Karagach revealed she was expecting a baby with her husband, Pasha Pashkov, a few days after season 31 wrapped in November 2022.
“We’ve wanted a family ever since we’ve gotten married and we’ve been married for eight and a half years, so we are more than ready to have a baby,” Karagach told PEOPLE at the time. “We wanted to start planning this year and it just so happened that the timing was absolutely perfect. I actually found out I was pregnant on [DWTS season 31’s] premiere day.”
She also explained that her partner, Joseph Baena, didn’t know about her pregnancy throughout the season, and that her doctor encouraged her to continue dancing.
“My body is just so used to dancing and being active that if I kind of go the other way, it’s too much of an extreme for my body,” she said. “My doctor was like, ‘The fact that you keep dancing is actually healthy for the baby.’ That was refreshing to hear.”
Karagach and Pashkov later welcomed their daughter, Nikita, on May 30, 2023.
Heather Hansen
Heather Hansen finished in fourth place on season 3 ofThe Biggest Loser in 2006, where she announced her pregnancy during the live finale of the show.
At the time, the contestant explained how she told her husband, Brian, the happy news in an interview with KSL-TV, a local Utah news outlet.
“I said, ‘Hey, honey, out of curiosity? If someone gave you a check for $250,000 and someone gave you a baby, what would you take?’ He said, ‘boy, I’d take a baby in a heartbeat.’ Then he kind of looked at me and his eyes started getting watery and he goes, ‘Oh, my gosh, are you pregnant?’ I said, ‘Yeah, we’re having a baby!’ ” Hansen recalled.
Allison Holker
During an episode of season 21 ofDancing with the Stars, pro Allison Holker announced she was pregnant with her and Stephen “tWitch” Boss‘ first child together. She was partnered with Andy Grammer throughout the season.
“It’s incredible, I’m so excited! I am four months along. I have been holding this secret and I am not good at secrets. I must pat myself on the back because I have done an awesome job not telling anybody,” she told Extra in October 2015.
Holker and Boss welcomed their son, Maddox, on March 27, 2016. Boss later died at the age of 40 in December 2022.
Jamie VandenBerg
Three months after competing at Miss Universe 2025, Miss Canada Jamie VandenBerg revealed she was four months pregnant during the pageant.
The beauty queen announced her pregnancy on Instagram in March 2026.
“I was 16 weeks (4 months) pregnant when I competed in swimwear and placed Top 30. Carrying life while living out a dream I once thought impossible,” she wrote in the caption. “Today, it feels freeing to share this: I am pregnant 💕.”
VandenBerg later explained her decision to keep her pregnancy private in an August 2026 interview with PEOPLE.
“I really loved that we did that because it made the pregnancy feel that much more intimate in an era of my life where everything was so in the public eye,” she said.
Peta Murgatroyd
Murgatroyd became pregnant just a few months into season 22 of Dancing with the Stars. She planned on keeping her pregnancy a secret until she entered her second trimester, but a few people — including her dance partner, Nyle DiMarco — noticed.
“I was so sick,” Murgatroyd told PEOPLE in December 2020. “Nyle would see me falling asleep on the couches and on the floor of the rehearsal studio. He’d look at me like, ‘What’s going on?’ And I’d go, ‘Oh, I’m just tired.’ “
“I had to make sure my costumes were hiding it as much as possible, but a couple of people noticed,” she added.
Murgatroyd went on to win the season with DiMarco. She and her then-fiancé, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, welcomed their son, Shai, in January 2017.
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