Cheryl Burke brought up some past trauma as she talked about her ex-boyfriend whipping her with a belt in front of his parents, who just stood and watched without intervening.
The “Dancing with the Stars” pro dancer went into great detail about her graphic experience on “Red Talk”, where she and hosts Jada Pinkett Smith and Adrienne Banfield-Norris, in addition to an expert psychologist, discussed trauma bonding at length.
“In high school, I’ll never forget, the person I dated on and off for about four years whipped me with a belt,” Burke, 38, said in Tuesday’s preview of the upcoming Facebook Watch episode.
“I had bruises all over my legs. I remember his parents were watching it and they didn’t do anything to stop him,” Burke recalled her traumatic past. “It wasn’t like he was hitting me, he was whipping me.”
Burke’s episode on the show will air in full on Wednesday.
Trauma bonding is the formation of an unhealthy bond between a person living with abuse and their abuser.
Burke celebrated four years of sobriety in August, six months after filing for divorce from Matthew Lawrence.
“My father passed away in March 2018, and my dad was an alcoholic,” she shared in a September 2020 episode of the “LadyGang” podcast. “So either I was gonna crash and burn and check myself into rehab, or I was gonna just quit cold turkey.”
“I’m a very black and white sort of person. That’s just my personality,” Burke explained.
She said she came to the realization that she wanted to stop drinking at her and Lawrence’s engagement party in May 2018.
Unfortunately, the marriage did not work out, and she called it quits after less than three years.
“There isn’t really an easy way to announce that my marriage is ending,” Burke told her Instagram followers in February. “Thank you all for all the kind words & support you’ve given me, love you all.”
“It can be lonely sometimes after our split, but it hasn’t been easy for me to meet new people after the divorce,” Burke updated her fans a few weeks later.
Meanwhile, Lawrence, 42, was spotted with TLC singer Chilli in Hawaii in August, but the actor’s rep insisted that the two are just friends.
Glad that she broke the CHAINS that HELD her BOUND…