Cheryl Burke Spills on the Number of ‘DWTS’ Showmances She’s Had

Cheryl Burke is no stranger to a Hollywood showmance. In fact, she had quite a few during her time on Dancing with the Stars!

The pro dancer, 39, looked back on her time on the ABC reality program during an appearance on the Amy & T.J. Podcast on Tuesday, April 16. Eventually, the conversation shifted to discussing whether there was “a lot of sex going on” behind the scenes.

“Obviously!” Burke said. “I mean, like, look. There was lots of dry humping because that happens in the rumba. Right? There’s lots of that. Look, dancing, especially ballroom, is an intimate contact sport. And it happens! It does happen. And, look, I’ll be the first. I’m not gonna say who, but I’ve had my own showmances. You know? It happened.”

Burke said there were no rules against pros dating the celebrity contestants. Noting how “there’s a lot of great relationships” that have come from the show, she continued, “It’s seven days a week. You are consumed with each other. And also, we’ve seen their insecurities, they’re vulnerable.”

“In order to be successful on Dancing with the Stars, you have to be ready to be vulnerable,” she added. “Like, you gotta feel stupid. You gotta look stupid. You gotta be okay with that.”

Asked specifically about the number of DWTS showmances she’s had, Burke said: “I would say that it’s three.”

Though none of her showmances ever got serious, Burke confessed that she and one of her partners “tried” to make things work but “it just wasn’t gonna happen.” She also indicated that her showmances were “lust” and not love, noting that “the roles change” upon entering the real world since she’s “no longer an influence” like she was on set.

One of Burke’s former partners, in fact, actually “professed his love” to her on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. She was referencing Chad “Ocho Cinco” Johnson, whom she was paired with in the show’s 10th season.

“People were like, ‘Oh, you’re engaged! He gave you a diamond!'” she recalled. “And I was like, ‘No.'”

Burke participated in 26 seasons of Dancing with the Stars before departing the series in November 2022. Though she never officially dated someone from the series, she was married to Matthew Lawrence — whose brother Joey Lawrence previously competed on the series in its third season — from 2019 to 2022.

Burke is currently single, and she doesn’t have a specific timeframe for when she’s ready to re-enter the dating world, either.

“I would love to plan my whole life like that on a timeline, but, like, I’m trying to be a recovering control freak, though. I’m still a major micromanager, but, I just need to know me first,” she explained. “I need to really be comfortable in my own skin, or else I’m gonna fall into that same pattern of clearly of what didn’t work for me. I wasn’t a great picker.”

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The Amy & T.J. Podcast can be listened to anywhere podcasts are heard.