Maksim Chmerkovskiy didn’t hold back when criticizing Cheryl Burke on a recent podcast appearance. The former Dancing with the Stars pro slammed Burke’s Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast as overly negative.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy Slams Cheryl Burke’s Podcast
Chmerkovskiy was recently a guest on the Behind the Velvet Rope podcast with David Yontef. The dancer spoke at length about fellow former pro Cheryl Burke, who currently hosts a tell-all podcast featuring personalities from DWTS.
“The only people you get on your show are those who were wronged or feel like they were wronged, and they’re there to express their wrongness or whatever,” Chmerkovskiy shared, adding that he wouldn’t have appeared on the show if he had known it would be so negative.
Chmerkovskiy didn’t hold back, calling Burke’s podcast “so vile, and so dirty, and so negative.” The dancer seemed to have some personal beef with the podcast, as he brought up Lacey Schwimmer’s episode last year. Schwimmer accused Chmerkovskiy of making rude comments about her weight.
According to Chmerkovskiy, his comments were “completely taken out of context.” He said he thinks Burke “needs to do a lot of soul-searching,” telling her to “move on” from old negativity. Chmerkovskiy reduced her podcast to “gossiping and talking nonsense.”
“Someone like me will never support her podcast again,” Chmerkovskiy told Yontef. “And I’m not gonna support her, period. Because I feel used by her with her guests, for the most part. Like, I kept calling my PR. I’m like, I don’t understand how many podcasts will start with, ‘Max said something about Lacey…'”
Chmerkovskiy said he thought the podcast was clickbait, adding, “There’s no substance to it.” He criticized Burke for constantly “rewinding things,” sharing his belief that it’s hard for some pros to move on after they leave the show.
In contrast, Chmerkovskiy said he “was always about what’s next,” even when he was still performing on the show. He said that when Burke was on the show, she thought she would be a pro “for the rest of her life.” He also theorized that Burke was “super upset” about not getting a different job on the show.
Burke joined the show as a pro in the second season, winning twice during her time in the ballroom. She left the show after competing in Season 31. Chmerkovskiy also joined the show in Season 2, competing on and off throughout the years and winning once before leaving after Season 25.
Words by:
Jill O'Rourke Jill O’Rourke is a contributor at Talent Recap, writing news stories and recaps for shows like ‘AGT,’ ‘The Voice,’ and ‘American Idol.’ She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in English and Film Studies, and has been writing about pop culture since 2012, with previous bylines at Crushable and A Plus. Jill spends her free time binge-watching sitcoms and daydreaming about life as a hobbit
