What happened to Elaine Hendrix? Parent Trap star recalls 90’s accident that ended dancing career

Elaine Hendrix has spent decades reinventing herself on screen.

From the polished villain Meredith Blake in The Parent Trap to sharp, scene-stealing characters on television. But when she stepped onto the Dancing With the Stars stage in Season 34, it wasn’t just another role; it was a return to the life she once thought she had lost. Her first routine with pro partner Alan Bersten leaned into nostalgia.

She appeared in a wide-brimmed black hat, a direct wink to her 1998 breakout role, and even worked in the film’s famous twin handshake. Fans cheered the clever throwback, but the performance carried weight beyond the theatrics. In rehearsal clips, Elaine Hendrix explained that dance had been the starting point of her career. She revealed that she used to train professionally until the early ’90s, when a bike accident involving a car forced her to give it up.

“I’m really lucky I walked away from it,” she told Bersten, acknowledging the toll her body still carried, even if her spirit remained young.

Judge Derek Hough put her story into perspective when the performance ended. He framed her debut not as a competition but as a personal victory.

“Your journey for reclaiming dance has begun tonight,” he explained.

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Elaine Hendrix recalls car accident that shifted her career from dance to acting:

Back in 2016, Elaine Hendrix opened up to HuffPost about the bike accident that altered her career trajectory.

“I began my career as a classically trained dancer in modern and contemporary jazz, I had just came to Los Angeles to begin my professional career and very soon after moving here I was riding my bike and got hit by a car and that changed everything for me,” she recalled.

The injuries made dancing painful, leading Elaine Hendrix to shift focus toward acting. That pivot quickly paid off.

“I wound up booking some guest starring roles, and then I booked my first series, and that’s when I stopped dancing professionally,” she said.

While she never abandoned dance completely, Elaine Hendrix admitted she had to adjust expectations.

“Whenever I dance I need to be prepared for the fact that I will be really sore and can’t quite do the things I used to do-but that’s okay.”

Elaine Hendrix also discussed her singing experience, calling it both familiar and "intimidating."

“The singing is also something I’ve always done… Put me on a film set or a stage? I’m completely at home. But, if you put me in a recording studio it’s more new to me, so it became pretty intimidating.”

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Elaine Hendrix channels resilience on DWTS:

As Entertainment Weekly reported, Elaine Hendrix revealed she hadn’t danced in a studio for nearly 30 years.

“I want to prove to myself and other women that age is just a number,” she shared.

Performing third on the Season 34 premiere, Elaine Hendrix and Alan Bersten briefly held the top spot with a combined 12 points, six each from judges Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli. Carrie Ann Inaba missed the episode due to illness. Their lead didn’t last long. The following pair, Mark Ballas and Whitney Leavitt, pulled ahead with 15 points. Even so, the performance signaled a solid start for the actress.

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The Parent Trap’s Meredith Blake gets her redemption, says Elaine Hendrix:

Elaine Hendrix's performance as Meredith Blake, the chic would-be stepmother from Disney’s 1998 The Parent Trap, has always been appreciated. Once dismissed as the film’s villain, Meredith has enjoyed something of a cultural reappraisal. Was she truly the antagonist, or simply a savvy young woman aiming to get married to a man who has a Napa vineyard and one of cinema’s most enviable homes?

While speaking with Today, this past August, Elaine Hendrix revisited the debate.

“From Day 1, I said that Meredith was not the villain,” she insisted.

In her view, blame lay elsewhere,

“Either the 11-year-old twins who pushed me out on a raft after I had taken a sleeping pill, or the parents who separated them to begin with.”

Far from distancing herself from the character, Hendrix has continued to celebrate the film’s enduring charm. She produced the off-Broadway parody Ginger Twinsies and reunited with Lindsay Lohan for Freakier Friday, the sequel to another of Lohan’s hits.

The reunion, she said, was “really lovely.” Lohan, once the 12-year-old newcomer carrying The Parent Trap, is now 39.

“Unless you go through such a big experience with someone, you might not be able to understand exactly … but you sort of like, you just pick up where you were,” Hendrix shared.

Though her resume has stretched from Dynasty to Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion, Meredith Blake has followed her throughout her career. Hendrix leaned into the connection in Freakier Friday, slipping in a callback to her most famous line. Addressing Lohan’s character Anna, she revived Meredith’s pet name for the twins: “puss.”

“I suggested saying that, I was like, ‘Do you want me to do this? It’s directly from The Parent Trap. And they’re like, ‘Yes.’ I did a few different takes,” she shared.

She confirmed that was the last Parent Trap Easter egg in the new film, though her character also paid tribute to another role, Lisa Luder, the fashion editor she played in Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion.