Tart-tongued Dancing With the Stars judge Bruno Tonioli doesn't regret telling Kate Gosselin she was "terrible" on Monday's premiere.
"Kate wasn't very good — she can't perform," he told UsMagazine.com Tuesday at a party celebrating Evan Lysacek's Olympic Gold Medal at Ralph Lauren in L.A. "But she will learn."
On Monday's show, he also told Gosselin, 34, that it looked like her partner Tony Dovolani was "pushing a shopping cart around the floor" as they danced the Viennese Waltz.
"It was true! It wasn't harsh!" Tonioli, 54, told Us. "She was like a shopping cart! Sometimes people need to be shaken up a bit to keep it up! It's the truth, it's what I feel, it's just being honest!
"If you want love, go to your mother!" he added. "This is Dancing with the Stars, and you know what you're going to get! "It's a competition and there are people who are working very, very hard," he went on. "And to get there, you have to say, 'OK, I didn't perform, I was stiff, I was like a shopping cart.' They have to come back and show it."
But professional dancer Mark Ballas feels for Gosselin.
"Poor woman!" he told Us. "She's here trying to have a good time and trying to make her kids and family proud. Tony is an excellent teacher and a great mentor and has been guiding her through it. We all want to support her, and I think she'll do fine."