“Dancing With the Stars” alum Cheryl Burke has some explicit advice for newcomers to the dance floor.
“Be single if you do 'Dancing With the Stars.' That’s all I’m saying,” the professional dancer, who spent 26 seasons on the show, said on the most recent episode of “Sex, Lies and Spray Tans,” her tell-all “DWTS” podcast.
Burke admitted to having had three romantic relationships with partners during her run on the series and attributed the connections to “crazy” rehearsal schedules, which lead dance partners into repeated intimate interactions for up to three months.
“You don't say, 'Oh yeah, he's cute.' Like, no, no, either I like you or I don't, because you're constantly [together] eight hours a day, seven days a week,” Burke said.
However, not all relationships are love at first sight. Burke described each pairing as an “arranged marriage” in which the professional and the contestant “love each other or hate each other.”
“It's very intimate and you're stuck with this person,” Burke said. “You better at least try to make it work.”
Associations are even more complicated for those who walk on stage with a ring on their finger. Burke said a former famous contestant (married) confessed that he was in love with his dance partner (married) and, although nothing happened between the two, suspicions of an affair affected his family.
“You get close in many ways,” he said. “These celebrities are very vulnerable, because to be successful you have to strip away everything. And that alone? I bet most of these married celebrities haven't even done that with their wives.”
Burke met her ex-husband, “Mrs. Doubtfire actor Matthew Lawrence when she was dancing with her brother, “Melissa & Joey” actor Joey Lawrence, on the third season of “DWTS.” The couple split in 2022 after three years of marriage, but many couples, including Kym Johnson and Robert Herjavec from season 20, Daniel Durant and Britt Stewart from season 31, and Nikki Bella and Artem Chigvintsev from season 25, for name a few. few have found lasting love under the disco ball.
