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The 44-year-old 'Boy Meets World' alum also revealed that her son invented a wildly untrue narrative about how his dad "got fired" from his job.
Danielle Fishel has revealed the emotional toll her rigorous schedule for Dancing with the Stars took on her family, sharing a hilarious but heartbreaking story of how her 6-year-old son, Adler, became so upset by her absence that he told his teacher his mom had "died."
Fishel, who recently wrapped her run on Season 34 of the dancing competition, opened up about the incident on the November 10 episode of her Pod Meets World podcast with cohosts Rider Strong and Will Friedle. The 44-year-old Boy Meets World alum explained that the demanding rehearsal schedule completely upended her routine, meaning she was no longer able to be as present for her two sons, Adler and 4-year-old Keaton.
While she initially believed her family was "thriving" in the new dynamic, she soon received an alarming phone call from Adler’s school.
“It’s his teacher. She says, ‘So, we had a little bit of an issue today with Adler and I wanted to talk to you about it,’” the actress recalled. His teacher explained that the boy was struggling with his work and, when asked what was wrong, began to invent a stressful, untrue narrative about his dad, Jensen Karp, losing his job because he “inputted a lot of information on the computer wrong and then got fired.”
Adler then added a kicker. Fishel recalled the teacher sharing his words: "And also, my mom died ... my mom is dead."
The teacher, being careful not to shut him down, asked him to tell her more. Fishel, who clarified that "not a single word" of her son's story was true, skipped a physical therapy appointment, and rushed to pick him up from school.
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View Story“He comes running to me: ‘Mom, what are you doing here?’ and I go, ‘I got out of rehearsal, I missed you, I wanted to pick you up,’” Fishel shared with her cohosts. “He goes, ‘Great, what are we doing tonight?’ and I said, ‘You’ve got movie night with your friends.’ He goes, ‘Oh, yeah, I remember that, but you know what, I just wanna hang out with you tonight.’ And I said, ‘Well, actually while you are at movie night, I have to go back to rehearsal.’ … And he bursts into tears.”
"Everything just came out," Fishel recounted, as Adler confessed his true feelings about the competition show. "He says, 'I hate this job. Why did you take this job? All you do is dance, dance, dance, dance. That’s all you do! You never get to hang out with me and Keaton anymore,'" Fishel shared.
The distressed 6-year-old then issued a direct ultimatum to his celebrity mom: "I want you to quit. Are you going to quit or not?"
While Fishel apologized for not being around as much, Adler was still very insistent about her giving up DWTS, especially after she hurt her leg earlier in the season.
“He said, ‘I just need to know if you’re going to quit your job.’ I said, ‘Mommy’s not going to quit her job.’ And he said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Well, a couple of reasons. One, Mommy really loves her job. And two, because this job is not forever, and I made a commitment to the job,’” she recalled.
Fishel said she promised Adler that DWTS will be “over by Thanksgiving and things will go back to normal,” but added, “In the meantime, you and I will find special ways to connect when I am able to be with you. For the next few weeks it’s still going to be really hard. It’s totally understandable that you’re angry. I love you very much.”
While Adler was initially upset, he later apologized to his mom. The two even shared a hug, though Fishel noted they are "still working through it."
