The women of the Netflix reality hit America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are most fascinating when they’re walking out the door. That was true of season-one breakout Victoria Kalina, who left Texas after four fraught years with the premier NFL cheerleading squad to pursue her dream of becoming a Rockette in New York City. Season two of the docuseries spotlights another veteran cheerleader—Chandi Dayle—as she plans to retire after six seasons with the team.
But what begins as a triumphant victory lap for Dayle, a well-liked leader who’s often positioned front and center on the field, ends in shocking fashion. “It’s been really crazy and overwhelming” to relive it all, Dayle tells Vanity Fair in her first interview since season two dropped. It’s also “therapeutic, because you can watch yourself grow up and then close a chapter.”
In the show’s second season, Dayle reveals that she is a survivor of domestic violence, harassment, and stalking at the hands of an ex-boyfriend. “I feel like I always have to have my head on a swivel,” Dayle says at one point in the series, explaining that despite filing police reports against her ex, she hasn’t received a protective order.
Though she felt ready to speak out about her private pain, Dayle wasn’t always sure she had made the right decision. “It was a roller coaster for sure,” she says. “There were times I was so proud of myself for having that weight lifted off my shoulders. But there were also times like, ‘Oh my gosh, did I share too much about my life? Are people going to think I’m crazy for staying in this situation for that long?’”
Dayle was also under pressure due to the multiple jobs she has to hold in addition to being a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. The women of America’s Sweethearts earn more money now than they used to—but even their increased salaries are paltry compared to the millions netted by many Dallas Cowboys. “People are shocked at how athletic we are. I’ve always been told dance is not a sport, but it is,” Dayle says. “This athleticism that you have to have to be a DCC is unmatched.”
On the show, Dayle also opens up about being adopted by her parents, who divorced when she was 12. After her father remarried, she recounts, he and her stepmother told Dayle that they weren’t going to keep in touch with her or her younger sister.
Dayle’s mother Joanna says in the series that she’s only seen her daughter cry once—because she “doesn’t like to express her vulnerability to anyone other than herself.” Dayle agrees: Especially when she was part of the team, “I was suppressing a lot of emotions. When you’re in those environments, you’re just living on a prayer.”
It was understandably difficult for her mother to watch the season. “I remember her texting me, ‘I didn’t know you were going through all this. I didn’t know you were that sad. I’m so sorry I wasn’t there more,’” Dayle says. “It made us closer because I could be open with her.”
Midway through the season, Dayle reaches her personal breaking point. While on a team retreat in the Bahamas, Dayle invites a man back to her hotel room—a violation to DCC protocol. “Chandi brought somebody into the room that no one had known, and a lot of people were just worried for their safety because they didn’t know who this individual was,” fifth-year veteran Jada Mclean says on the show.
Later, Dayle shares her side of the story. “I met someone and we shared similar things that have happened in our past,” she says on the series. So she confided in him. In the aftermath, she understands that this “was probably the wrong place and time to do that. But selfishly, I had to do it for me. Because I feel like I was losing it.”
Speaking now, Dayle says there isn’t much more to the story than what was shown on the series. “It’s really nice to confide in a friend who has gone through similar things. I take complete ownership for my actions, but we’re also all just humans.” When asked if she has stayed in contact with the mystery man, Dayle replies, “Yeah, I am there for my friend. I hope that I can be a rock for others.”
