With all the closeness and emotion filled dancing, people are bound to catch some feelings, that’s what happened to ‘Dancing with the Stars’ Cheryl Burke.
The 39-year old ballroom dancer admitted that she felt lust towards some of the contestants and she even let one of her exes names slip.
Burke admitted, “I dated three of my celebrity dance partners, but they were short lived romances.”
Despite two of the partners remaining anonymous, Burke did slip and mention her relationship with Season 10 contestant Chad Ochocinco Johnson.
Burke, who left ‘DWTS’ in 2022 after 26 seasons, talked about her former romances on Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes’ podcast, Amy & T.J.
“Dancing, especially ballroom, is an intimate contact sport,” Burke explained. “And it happens. I’m not going to say who, but I’ve had my own showmances, you know. It happened.”
“One of them basically professed his love to me on Ellen DeGeneres,” Cheryl added.
She later confirmed it was former football player and season 10 ‘DWTS’ contestant Chad Ochocinco Johnson.
During their appearance on Ellen’s show, Chad kissed her and they showed off the $10,000 ring he bought her. However, Burke denied any engagement rumors after the talk show appearance.
When asked if the relationships flourished outside of work, the dancer said, “That was the problem because it’s seven days a week. There’s a lot of great relationships that come from the show. People got married from the show, right?”
“But it’s seven days a week. You are consumed with each other, also we’ve seen their insecurities. They’re vulnerable, and especially as a professional woman who was a ballroom dancer teaching, let’s say the athlete, for example, who feels like this macho person, all of a sudden has to be like, ‘I don’t know if I can shift.’ In order to be successful on Dancing with the Stars, you have to be ready to be vulnerable. You gotta feel stupid,” she added.
Despite getting entangled three times, Burke clarified that the relationships only amounted to lust, it was definitely not love in the end.
Earlier this month, Cheryl also addressed speculation that she dated married Sex and the City alum Gilles Marini, her partner on season eight.
“We had that thing without having that thing,” Cheryl told Gilles when he appeared on the April 14 episode of her Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast. “Nothing has ever happened physically between us. We were very close, intimate, like in that sense, like, we were great friends. We went through our ups and downs.”
She added that she has “hot chemistry” with Gilles, who has two children with his wife of 26 years, Carole Marini.
“You can’t teach that,” she said. “You either have it with someone or you don’t, and it was hot.”
Burke went through a divorce in 2022 after less than three years of marriage to actor Matthew Lawrence, citing irreconcilable differences.
However, she has not ruled out finding love again.
“I’m looking for someone who can really inspire me that makes me think that supports me and vice versa,” she previously said. “Someone that is his own person and I’m my own individual person but then we come together because we enjoy each other’s company.”
