And while making her firstborn—followed by kids Callum, 6, and Rhiannon, 2, with fiancé Steve Kazee—proud onstage was Jenna’s main objective for the evening, she also felt pressure as a professional dancer who has toured with Ricky Martin and Justin Timberlake to nail her routines in the ballroom.
“Of course, I feel some pressure for sure, and expectation to really bring it. But it’s also mostly my own,” she told E!. “I just wanted to live as much as I could live and feel as good as I could feel and give the best performance. So, the pressure really was more coming from that place.”
Indeed, her partner Val admitted in their joint interview, “I don’t want those sixes,” referring to their opening scores. But he also noted that it was fair for the judges to review the actress’ routines with a stricter lens because of her background.
