Bethany Mota and Derek Hough are one of the five teams left on Dancing With the Stars, and the young team has been surrounded by dating rumors throughout season 19.
The pair have not addressed the dating rumors directly, but when asked about it on Access Hollywood Derek did reveal that he learned what “shipping” means from Bethany.
“I just learned what shipping means ... apparently shipping means when you want two people to be together.
“These two people would be really cute together--I ship them,” explained Bethany to the hosts, who had not heard of the term before.
Ok! magazine has been among the outlets suggesting that Derek and Bethany are dating, pointing to pictures that showed Derek carrying Bethany’s luggage for her while they were in Australia and another snap that Derek shared that showed them “embracing in a loving way.”
Neither have publicly said anything about dating.
Over the years, there’s been speculation and rumors about contestants and dance partners on Dancing with the Stars being romantically involved, including last season’s winners, Meryl Davis and Maksim Chmerkovskiy. Those rumors proved to be unfounded.
Bethany and Derek have become close friends despite their age difference--Bethany is 19 and Derek is 29--in a similar situation to Sadie Robertson and Mark Ballas.
But unlike Sadie, Bethany is single. And unlike Mark, Derek is also reportedly single.
Some fans believe the age difference is too big but others don’t view it as a problem.
“Could they date? Would that be weird?” asked one fan, referring to the age difference between Derek and Bethany.
“They can date,” said another. “My parents are 16 years apart and have Been married for 29 years.”
“Yeah that would be totally fine if they dated tbh because jay z and beyonce are 12 years apart,” added another.
