Joanna Donnelly had to emotionally prepare herself to not fall apart as she paid tribute to her late mother on Sunday night's Dancing With The Stars.
The meteorologist left judges Karen Byrne and Loraine Barry and some of her co-stars in tears after her waltz to Moon River.
The song had a personal meaning for her as it was her mum's favourite, and Joanna also learned to play it on the piano after her death.
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Joanna told RSVP Live: "I was trying to emotionally prepare myself to not fall apart. It was a really emotional week and Maciej is so good.
"Not only is he a great teacher, he is great at preparing you for the whole show. He is so supportive.
"I loved it and my family loved it. I had 113 WhatsApp messages when I came off."
She added: "I was trying to hold it together for myself. I taught myself to play that song to keep her with me, not to make me cry every time I hear it. It is a pleasure and joy."
Joanna's mum always wanted to see her on Dancing With The Stars.
She said: "My mum went to Blackpool to watch ballroom dancing on her honeymoon. She was a big ballroom fan.
"She put me into ballroom dancing when I was five but I didn’t take to it. Any surprises? [laughs] She watched Come Dancing, it was a show before Strictly Come Dancing came along."
Joanna's routine, a cha-cha-cha to It's Raining Men, on week one was not a hit with the four judges and she ended up at the bottom of the leaderboard with just 15 points. However, this was also the same week that the whole country faced numerous weather warnings, which Joanna was forecasting.
The RTÉ star said: "I probably took on too much last week. I thought I was Superwoman. If the weather impacted me, it was probably just that I was tired.
"I don’t think I ever had the cha-cha-cha in my body. It didn’t gel with me and it didn’t work. That crushed my confidence a small bit after doing so badly straight out of the block.
"I thought ‘Oh, I can’t dance after all’ - and I thought I was a great dancer.
She added: "I knew that I hadn’t done a good job, so when the judges were being tough on me, I was like ‘Oh well’. It was afterwards when my friends asked why they were so mean to me that I questioned it."
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Joanna praised her pro partner Maciej Zieba for his support when she finally returned to training on Tuesday after the first live show.
She said: "Maciej picked me up and he gave me a good talking to when I rocked up to studio. He’s such a wise man for someone so young."
Next Sunday will see the first celebrity leave the dancefloor as eliminations begin.
Joanna said: "I was complaining that they should change the rules and we should all stay until the end. None of us want to go home because we don’t want to be not part of this anymore.
"Every year, all of the participants say how wonderful of an experience this is. None of them are lying.
"From the very first phone call I took from the producers to the dance Sunday night, it has been an incredibly positive experience."
Dancing With The Stars airs Sunday nights at 6.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player
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