BEHIND her megawatt smile and glittery gown, CARRIE ANN INABA was hiding a painful secret from “Dancing with the Stars” viewers during the show’s March 18 premiere.
Her beloved father – 73-year-old Rodney Yoshimitsu Inaba– had died just days earlier after a brave battle with tongue and colon cancer.
Sources say the Hawaiian tour operator suffered two heart attacks during his final years, but he courageously soldiered on.
“CARRIE ANN WORE A BLACK dress to honor the memory of her father, and it was all she could do to hold back the tears,” said an insider. “But she decided that being there was what her father would have wanted. Now, she’s decided to dedicate the rest of the season to him. And she’s thinking about performing a dance routine on the show in her father’s memory.”