Kym Johnson-Herjavec Talks Marriage, Kids, ‘Hunting Housewives’ Role (EXCLUSIVE)
Kym Johnson-Herjavec told us she and her character differ because “I actually really love my husband.”
Published March 8 2024, 2:50 p.m. ET
It’s been over five years since Dancing With the Stars pro Kym Johnson-Herjavec turned in her Lenn Goodman Mirrorball trophy–winning shoes for another creative skill. Since leaving DWTS, Kym has pivoted into acting and is one of the stars of Lifetime’s Hunting Housewives, airing on Saturday, March 9, 2024.
The movie features former Real Housewives stars NeNe Leakes and Denise Richards and model and podcast host Melyssa Ford.
Kym, who appeared briefly on Celebrity Survivor: Vanuatu, believes that her lack of enthusiasm for life in the woods may have helped her secure the role of Joli Symons in Hunting Housewives.
In an exclusive interview with Distractify, she stated that while she and her character have this in common, they differ in their approach to parenting and marriage.
Kym Johnson-Herjavec said her marriage to husband Robert Herjavec differs from her ‘Hunting Housewives’ character’s.
Kym Johnson-Herjavec and husband Robert Herjavec
In the official trailer for Hunting Housewives, we learn that something is off with Denise Richards’s character Karla Dodd’s marriage. The character’s husband, Mark (Mark Ghanimé), orchestrated for her and her friends, played by Kym, NeNe, and Melyssa, to be stuck in the woods while recording them.
Kym told us that Denise’s character’s unconventional marriage isn’t the only relationship viewers might side-eye while watching Hunting Housewives. She said that while she and her character, Joli, share a “funny sense of humor,” Joli has a marriage she can’t relate to.
Although Kym has been happily married to her former DWTS partner, Shark Tank star Robert Herjavec, since 2016, she said her character isn’t as lucky.
“I'm very different from Joli because she doesn't like her husband, and I actually really love my husband,” Kym said. “Joli is not happy in her marriage. She wants more out of her life.”
Kym Johnson-Herjavec said she’s more “down to earth” at home with her kids than Jolie.
Kym Johnson-Herjavec with daughter Haven and son Hudson
Kym and Robert’s romance shows that love can indeed find you in the last place you would think to look. The couple met on the DWTS set in 2015 during Season 24 of the show. Soon after the season wrapped, Robert and Kym were married, and she left the competition for the first time in 2015. She then returned for a final season in 2017.
Since tying the knot, Kym and Robert have become parents to their twins, Hudson and Haven, born on April 23, 2018. Kym told us that raising 5-year-old twins forces her to move differently than her character, Joli, who she believes acts as a "princess."
“I'm kind of a bit more down to earth,” she said. “Although I don't really like camping outside, so I could definitely relate to her struggles there.”
The ‘Hunting Housewives’ star has a “different mindset” for acting versus dancing.
While much of her and Joli’s lives don’t intertwine, Kym and her Hunting Housewives character can relate to discovering something new.
“This is new for me, acting,” she explained. “And I had to make a bit of a pivot in my career.”
Kym said she formed a “different mindset” as she embraced letting go of her dancing background to think more like an actor, something she credits her co-stars for helping her through.
“Working with the girls, I learned a lot, and I really embraced being present and in the moment,” Kym said. “I think that’s what an actor has to do. As a dancer, I'm so rehearsed, and you're choreographed. Whereas acting is a little more free and reactive. So I had to have a different mindset.”
