Exclusive: Dancing With the Stars' Samantha Harris Talks About Life Off-Stage
The Dancing With the Stars co-host opens up on life off-stage.
We don't need to tell you: life's busy. Work, kids, romance, appointments, and more work piled onto the craziest time of year. We women always seem pull it off -- but ask Samantha Harris, and she'll agree it's a full plate.
The Dancing With the Stars presenter turns 36 this week, and her ability to juggle work and life are inspiring. Harris holds down a hosting gig with the number-one reality show in America as well as on CBS' The Insider (yep, that makes two day jobs). She's also a wife to financial wholesaler Michael Hess, as well as a mom to adorable two-year-old Josselyn. Tuesday we had the chance to ask Harris how she stays looking so great...and as it turns out, her happy home life helps.
While prepping for Dancing With the Stars to go live ("I can give you a good fifteen minutes!" she said while eating a barbecue chicken salad in the makeup chair) Samantha Harris shared a voyeuristic look at what takes place when she's not on camera -- and, as you probably guessed, things keep their pace at home.
LimeLife: Samantha, we've just discussed your attitude toward dieting when you're working. When you're home, do you enjoy cooking?
Samantha Harris: I love cooking. Unfortunately I don't really get much free time to do that, as we said, between the two jobs and my daughter. But I do have a couple of heatlhy meals that are my go-tos on a quick basis.
LimeLife: Such as?
Samantha Harris: One is from the Whole Foods cookbook which is a szechuan turkey burger. It's really healthy, chock full of vegetables, no heavy, creamy sauces. It's really great.
LimeLife: Okay, our big question, and we've heard the answer won't be what we're expecting: how do you maintain those amazing arms?
Samantha Harris: Oh, thank you. I think since I've had my daughter it's been from carrying her around. Even though she's now two she still wants Mommy to carry her constantly when I'm home, and I don't turn her down because I want to be with her after having been at work all day. So I think that definitely helps. I'm also a big fan of free weights and going to classes -- when I have the time (laughs), which is fewer and further between nowadays -- that incorporate sculpting and cardio. Repetition with three- or five-pound weights is usually my favorite thing right now-flies, lat pull-downs, that kind of thing.
LimeLife: Can you talk about how your husband supports you as you balance being a mom and working two really demanding jobs?
Samantha Harris: He's an incredible partner and a teammate. Throughout my pregnancy, [I went] on lots of walks with him [as well as] right after I delivered Josselyn. Still now, we try to take power walks -- which is stair-climbing while one of us carries her on our back. It's something we like to do together, and that's very encouraging -- and motivating.
LimeLife: Samantha, your outfits on Dancing With the Stars are always so incredible. How does styling work for you on the show?
Samantha Harris: I have an incredible stylist named Christina Scarbo who has worked with me for the last four-plus years. She definitely knows my style and my body type; what works and what doesn't. So we have a lot of short-hand together with that. And she pulls a lot of dresses and does a ton of legwork to decide what we like and what we don't. She does an incredible job, whether we bought [a dress] off the rack at a clothing store or received it from a couture designer. She makes sure that it fits me to a T.
LimeLife: How does your style on the show differ from your style in real life?
Samantha Harris: (laughs) My real life is usually no makeup, a baseball hat, jeans and a t-shirt. But thankfully I have an incredible team, and I'm not just saying that because they're standing here in front of me doing my hair and makeup right now. I feel very lucky that I can roll out of bed and kiss my daughter goodbye and be transformed into sort of this ballroom princess that I get to be every night.
In Part One of our chat with ballroom princess Samantha Harris, she revealed her workout and diet secrets -- check them out here. Plus, if you love the Dancing With the Stars inside scoop, read our interview with finalist Kym Johnson!
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