Ryan Lochte has shared the advice he received from Michael Phelps when he reached out to his fellow swimmer following Lochte's headline-making incident in Rio.
Lochte shared his Phelps' words of wisdom when he sat down for an interview on Monday's "Ellen," alongside his "Dancing with the Stars" pro partner Cheryl Burke.
"And you reached out to Michael Phelps when all this happened and got his advice because he's been through a little bit too you know. So, what did he say?" Ellen asked.
"Yeah, I reached out to him 'cause I knew he hit a low point in his life and he bounced back from it and I knew his answer was gonna be really honest just because of our relationship over the years," Lochte recounted. "So, he said it's not what you did it's what you do now that will shape who you are and I took that to heart and you know, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna better myself. Make sure I don't make those mistakes and become a better person."
Lochte made headlines over the summer when it was revealed that he was involved in an incident at a Rio gas station, and fabricated some of his robbery story.
The morning after the incident, Lochte told Billy Bush of "Today" and Access Hollywood an account that has since been disputed by local authorities.
"We got pulled over in our taxi, and these guys came out with a badge – a police badge – no lights, no nothing, just a police badge.
They pulled us over, they pulled out their guns," he told Bush in mid-August, adding that one of the men took their money and his wallet.
On August 18, Rio's police chief, Fernando Veloso, said there was no robbery.
"Right now, as we speak, what the police can affirm — there was no robbery the way it was reported or claimed by the athletes," Veloso said during the Aug. 18 news conference (in Portuguese), according to NBC News. "They were not victims of the criminal actions that they claimed they were."
In addition, Globo released surveillance video footage from the gas station at the time, that appeared to undercut the version of events Lochte told Bush.
Earlier this week, USA Swimming imposed a 10-month suspension from domestic and international USA Swimming national team competitions on Lochte and ordered him to perform 20 hours of community service for code of conduct violations.
On Monday night, Ryan joins pro Cheryl in the ballroom for the Season 23 premiere of "Dancing with the Stars." Ryan said he was slated to do "DWTS" prior to the Olympics, but after what happened in Rio, he had second thoughts.
"I decided to do this a month before all this has happened. There's a certain time where I was like, is this the right idea?" Ryan told Ellen.
Ryan said he turned to those closest to him about whether or not to do the competition.
"I realized, I reached like the lowest point of my entire life that I never thought I would go to and I was in a really dark place and I didn't know if I should come out, just hide my entire life, but I reached to my family and my friends and they kept me positive and [said] you know you have to do this you have to get out there. You can't always hide the rest of your life, and just embrace this opportunity so that's why I'm here," he told Ellen.
