Cheryl Burke has been recently airing her past grievances and traumatic experiences.
The latest of her traumas, a retired mailman that was hired to babysit her, groomed and then sexually abused her.
Cheryl, 38, said, “My parents got divorced when I was two because my dad, Stephen Louis Burke, was unfaithful to my mom.”
“Later my mom got remarried to my stepfather, Robert Wolf. He had hired an elderly babysitter, who used to be a mailman,” Cheryl added.
Burke alleges that while the man didn’t have intercourse with her, he still groomed her and that made him become her definition of love in her youth.
Burke said, “It wasn’t intercourse. It was other stuff that happened, sexual acts, but I never physically felt hurt. There was moments where it didn’t feel bad. It was actually intimate.”
“He was grooming me, and he was my definition of love. This is what love equaled, right? Seeing my father’s infidelity, being abused by this old retired mailman, and I didn’t really know what a “healthy” relationship is or was,” explained Burke.
Her father is Stephen Louis Burke and her mother is Sherri Burke. She later married Wolf.
The former Dancing with the Stars pro, who was previously married to Boy Meets World actor Matthew Lawrence from 2019 until 2022, went on to explain that because there wasn’t a ‘stable father figure’ in her life, she became ‘brainwashed’ at a pivotal moment.
“There wasn’t a stable father figure in my life. It’s like brainwashing at those moments in your childhood when it really matters. This happened for many years and no one said anything, other than my older sister’s friend who did the right thing, ran home to her parents, and told them, and then they contacted my family. I actually testified against him at nine,” Burke said.
Burke claims dancing was her saving grace in life. It made her forget everything and gave her a new lease on life.
However, Cheryl added that the world of dance wasn’t an entirely ‘safe space’ and she is coming to realize she has also been a victim of ‘sexual and mental abuse’ throughout her career in the male-dominated world of ballroom.
“Thank God for dancing. It saved my life. Even that, though, wasn’t a totally safe space,” Burke shared. “Within this industry of the competitive ballroom world, it is very much a man’s world. The man leads, the woman follows, off the dance floor and on the dance floor. With that comes abusive partners and abusive coaches. Were there acts of sexual abuse and mental abuse? One hundred percent. Am I just coming to realize that? Yeah, for sure, as I continue to do the work.”
