Anna Delvey's DWTS partner Ezra Sosa responds to her controversial final words: 'She learned something!'

Anna Delvey's exit from Dancing With the Stars is just as controversial as her casting after the convicted felon flippantly declared she learned "nothing" from her experience on the show. But her pro dancer partner Ezra Sosa is once again coming to her defense after her final word received more backlash from fans and other DWTS stars, including judge Carrie Ann Inaba and former pro Cheryl Burke.

"She learned something!" Sosa told Entertainment Weekly with a laugh on Thursday night at the DirecTV Gets Real event co-hosted by EW and PEOPLE celebrating the return of fall reality TV. "It honestly didn't [hurt my feelings when] she said that. I was like, 'Facts, queen.'"

Delvey and Sosa were among the first eliminated during the first week of season 33, Sosa revealed that he had expected Delvey to say something spicy for her final words.

"When we were eliminated, I could tell from the jump just staring at her face, she was a little upset about it," he said. "So I was like, 'She's going to go off on [host] Julianne [Hough], I can see it happening.' But when she said, 'Nothing,' I was like, 'I'll take it, this is good.' It was so iconic though."

Despite getting eliminated so early in his first season as a pro dancer, Sosa is "feeling really good" about the entire experience.

"I'm very happy with my last dance with Anna," he said. "I really do think she improved ever since her first week so I'm glad — even though it's cut short. I think the most heartbreaking thing for me was that I wasn't able to give her a better experience, because I think she had a really hard time on the show. But all in all, I think her exit was so iconic, and I'm just glad to be a part of it."

He laughed as he admitted his favorite memory from the season is "that I can teach a convicted felon how to dance!"

"Yeah, I think I can stick that on a resume," Sosa added. "Anna's a late-night girl, so we'd be rehearsing until like midnight mostly every night. Those late nights were so fun with her. We would just be goofing off, talking, being chismosos and chismosas. She's so funny. I really did have such a blast with her."

Delvey is infamously known for posing as a German heiress to swindle thousands of dollars from banks, hotels, and many individuals, and was convicted for her crimes in 2019. She is the subject of the Shonda Rhimes drama Inventing Anna, among other projects, and was released early from prison on good behavior in 2021 and put on house arrest. She had to wear an ankle monitor on her leg for the show, and Sosa previously revealed that she was "crying in the bathroom" after the premiere.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Sosa's sister Stephani Sosa, who is a member of the DWTS troupe, told EW that she thinks Delvey is just "misunderstood."

"Especially being around her and [Ezra] together," Stephani explained. "I think she has a lot of walls up and we were able to see a really beautiful side of her that was cut short."

Ezra added, "She really was, when you think about it, isolated from society for like, what, seven years? That changes people. So I think, for her, it was a very overwhelming experience, and when you're really caught in a corner, the only thing you can do is just fight your way out. I think that's what she was doing. But as her pro, I really tried my best just to see her for the person she was, not for her controversy, and just really help her see that she wasn't alone going through this."

Dancing With the Stars season 33 airs Tuesdays on ABC at 8 p.m. ET/PT.