Brooke Burke Clarifies Her Comments About Wanting a ‘Love Affair’ with Derek Hough

Dancing with the Stars Season 7 winner Brooke Burke has clarified comments she made recently about her connection with professional partner Derek Hough. In a recent interview, Brooke said she “hoped we would have had a love affair.”

Brooke Burke Clarifies Derek Hough Comments

Earlier this month, Burke spoke to former DWTS pro Cheryl Burke on her podcast Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans about her partnership with Hough in Season 7. She admitted, “I would have actually hoped we would have had a love affair.”

Burke’s comments caused some controversy, but she recently addressed them with E! News, noting that she had “very clear boundaries” regarding her relationship with David Charvet at the time. She said Charvet (to whom she was married from 2011 to 2020) understood “the need for that intimate relationship” and was “super supportive.”

“There’s a big difference between sensual connection and a sexual connection,” Burke said of her relationship with Hough. “For me, our time in the ballroom, there was so much chemistry. It was romantic, it was challenge, it was struggle, it was triumph, it was fear. It was all these things that a couple goes through.”

Burke added that it “was very intimate and at times, very romantic, especially during performances like the Rumba and just the romance of storytelling through our bodies.” She said, “That’s what I meant.”

SEE ALSO: ‘DWTS’ ALUM BROOKE BURKE IS ‘VERY HAPPILY ENGAGED’ TO SCOTT RIGSBY

Burke Says She’ll ‘Always Be Crushing’ on Hough

Burke told E! News that she and Hough still have an “amazing” relationship, although she views him more like a brother these days. Still, she added that she would “always be crushing on Derek, like he’s adorable.”

“People don’t realize what a connection is required, and the audience sees that,” Burke said. “You can’t fake that, so I think Derek and I will always have a relationship and it was just exciting and it was new and scary and romantic.”

Hough tied the knot with fellow dancer Hayley Erbert in August of this year, while Burke became engaged to her boyfriend Scott Rigsby in 2021. They have yet to walk down the aisle.