Ezra Frech says Amy Purdy’s support is pushing him through his run on Dancing with the Stars, and he is not hiding how much it means. The 21-year-old Paralympian, who was born with congenital limb differences and had his left leg amputated above the knee, said Purdy’s weekly encouragement is “fueling” him as he competes alongside Daniella Karagach.
The timing matters because Frech and Karagach have stayed among the highest-scoring pairs this season, keeping the focus on their performances as much as on what they represent. Frech and Karagach tied for first place with a score of 12 out of 30 on Sept. 23, a result that helped turn his comments about Purdy into more than a feel-good exchange. For viewers searching Ezra Frech Dancing With The Stars now, the story is not just that he is on the show — it is that he is doing well enough to make the support around him part of the competition itself.
Purdy knows that path better than almost anyone on the cast. She competed on season 18 with Derek Hough and finished in second place, and she has been cheering Frech on since he was announced for season 35. Frech said he has “a lot of love” for Purdy and that “getting her love each week is fueling,” adding that she, Noah Galloway and every person with a disability who has been on the show paved the way for kids to see someone like themselves on TV. That is not abstract for a franchise built on image and performance; it is the difference between being seen as a contestant and being seen as proof.
Purdy, however, described a different emotional distance from her own time on the show. On Wednesday, Sept. 23, she said she had been emotional thinking about Frech on DWTS and that watching him speak openly and confidently about normalizing disability moved her more than she expected. She said that when she was on Dancing with the Stars, she was not yet confident enough to speak openly about her disability, and that she could only show up, work as hard as she could, and let people see what was possible. Frech is doing something she said she could not yet do then: talking about disability as part of the story, not something to keep in the wings.
That is why their exchange resonates beyond one post or one performance. Purdy helped open the door, and Frech is walking through it in public, with language and confidence that make the representation impossible to miss. He thanked Daniella Karagach before the season 35 premiere, said it meant the world to represent the disabled community on such a powerful stage, and replied to Purdy with “LOVE YOU AMY.” What remains unanswered is how far this run will go, but the bigger shift is already plain: Frech is not just competing on Dancing with the Stars, he is showing what comes after the first door opens.
