The Complete Transformation Of Cheryl Burke Has Heads Turning

This article contains mentions of child abuse and rape.

It's fair to say that Cheryl Burke is best known for hoofing it up with an array of celebrities for more than a decade on "Dancing With the Stars." However, she's far more than just a ballroom dancer. Not only is Burke a successful podcaster — she's hosted several, one of which regularly landed in Apple Podcasts' top 50 among film and television podcasts — other past projects have included starring on NBC's "I Can Do That," competing on "Worst Cooks in America: Celebrity Edition," and making multiple appearances as special host on "The Jennifer Hudson Show."

Burke also created and launched a live stage show, "Love on the Floor," founded her own branded chain of dance studios, and even launched her own fashion line for home-shopping via QVC. In 2025, she signed a first-look deal with ABC, in order to develop programming for the network, ranging from scripted and unscripted TV series — both live-action and animated — in addition to podcasts and specials. "I'm very excited about it," Burke gushed about her new deal when interviewed by Entertainment Tonight. "I do feel like I'm in my next chapter." Clearly, this is one talented woman who's already accomplished a lot and is on the cusp of taking her Hollywood career in some bold new directions.

Dancing has been a huge part of Cheryl Burke's life from a very early age. In fact, she was all of 4 years old when her lifelong dance journey began. "When I was little, my mom got me into every extracurricular activity you could imagine, from horseback riding to soccer and volleyball," she recalled in an interview with HuffPost. "Then I started ballet at age of 4, and that was the only thing I never complained about when getting up in the mornings. Right away I knew dancing was my passion and my mom did too."

Burke's mother quickly realized that dance captivated the youngster far more than other activities, and threw herself into lessons. As her enthusiasm for dance increased, even as a young girl she began envisioning a future in movement. "I wanted to be a professional dancer my whole life," she told Into the Gloss. 

While her fans may find it hard to imagine, Burke has always contended that she's inherently introverted. Dance, however, allowed her a means of creative expression that cut through all that. "I was always kind of shy as a kid," she told HuffPost. "And dancing was my way of letting everything go."

Even Cheryl Burke's most diehard fans may not know that her moniker isn't her birth name. In a TikTok video, Burke explained that her parents had named her Stephanie — until she convinced them to legally change it. "There was a girl in my middle school who bullied me named Stephanie, so I decided to make my legal name Cheryl Stephanie Burke," she wrote.

The truth about the "Dancing With the Stars" alum is that bullying wasn't the only terrible thing she dealt with during her childhood. In her 2011 memoir, "Dancing Lessons," Burke revealed that she'd been molested by a family friend, Gerry Depaula, whom her parents had enlisted to babysit her when she was 5. The abuse continued until Depaula was arrested after attempting to abuse Burke's stepsister and her friend. Burke, then aged 9, testified at his trial as the prosecution's key witness. Depaula's court-appointed attorney, Steve Chase, realized he'd lost the case the moment young Burke entered the courtroom. "She walked into the courtroom very nicely dressed. Adorable little girl clutching this dog and I just thought, 'Oh, why me?'" Chase told Inside Edition. Her testimony led to Depaula's conviction; found guilty of molesting Burke and three other girls, and sentenced to 24 years behind bars.

Burke told People (via the New York Post) that facing her abuser in court was "the scariest moment of my life." Meanwhile, the trauma that she experienced has left psychological scars that have never truly healed. "As I got older, the impact of the abuse led to me being in abusive relationships, and being codependent on men for wrong reasons," she told HuffPost.

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

As Cheryl Burke grew older, her passion for dance remained strong even as her love of ballet began to diminish. There were some very practical reasons for that, she told Into the Gloss. "I literally grew out of my ballet tights because I grew hips and started becoming a curvy woman, and I was like, 'Oh this doesn't really fit me anymore' — but ballroom did." When she was 12, she decided to make the switch from ballet to ballroom. 

As Burke told HuffPost, at a young age she found the glitz and glamor of ballroom dancing to be wildly appealing. "I saw kids my age dancing with rhinestones, bright colored costumes, makeup and nails and glitter," she said. "I was like, 'Oh my god this was made for me.' I fell in love with it right away."

Ballroom proved to be a perfect fit, and she quickly began to excel in competitions. Before long, she was competing on an international level, with ballroom dancing becoming her focus during her high school years. "Every summer I would travel abroad to England because England was the place to be for ballroom dancing," she told Into the Gloss. Shortly after graduating high school, she decided to take her skills to the next level. "At 19, I turned professional, and I moved to New York," she recalled.

Shortly after turning pro as a ballroom dancer, Cheryl Burke received a call that would change her life, offering an audition to be a pro dancer on ABC's new series "Dancing With the Stars." Initially, however, she was reticent. "To be honest, I'd watched the first season and I thought it was kind of cheesy," she told HuffPost. At the time, though, she was going through a rough patch with her dance partner — who was also her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend — and decided to throw caution to the wind and audition for the show. She danced her way into a job offer, and decided to go for it, moving to Los Angeles and joining the show at the start of its second season in 2006.

Burke quickly distinguished herself as both a fan favorite and a fierce competitor. In fact, her freshman season on the show proved to be victorious, with Burke and dance partner Drew Lachey winning the Mirrorball Trophy. The following year, she took home the trophy again, dancing her way to victory with former NFL great Emmitt Smith — becoming not only the first female pro dancer to win "DWTS," but also the first pro dancer to enjoy back-to-back wins.  

As Burke told Dance Magazine in 2011, becoming a television star via ballroom dancing was definitely not something she'd anticipated. "I never thought I would be on the No. 1 hit show on television," she admitted.

During the years that Cheryl Burke appeared on "Dancing With the Stars," other opportunities emerged. In 2015, for example, she was tapped as one of the celebrities to appear on "I Can Do That," appearing alongside Joe Jonas, Ciara, Nicole Scherzinger, Alan Ritchson, Jeff Dye, and Marlon Wayans in the unconventional NBC variety show in which they learned a different entertainment-related skill to put on a show each episode.

Another opportunity emerged in 2017, when controversial "Dance Moms" star Abby Lee Miller parted ways with the show that made her one of reality TV's most compelling villains, shortly before being sentenced to a year in prison for bankruptcy fraud. Burke was offered the job to replace her, and promised viewers they would see a very different style of dance instruction. "I would say I am approaching it differently," Burke said while appearing on "Steve" and commenting on how her teaching methods differ from Miller's. "I don't scream or yell — I don't believe in that," she continued, adding, "I try not to intimidate them or traumatize the kids." Suffice it to say, Miller was far from thrilled by Burke's criticism. "I think that's a really rough statement," Miller told Us Weekly. "I think she needs to watch her mouth."

Ultimately, Burke's tenure on "Dance Moms" was brief, lasting just a single season — albeit, for her, a memorable one. "I have to say it was definitely one of the highlights of my career so far," Burke said in a video on her YouTube channel of her experience.

In 2006, former "Blossom" star Joey Lawrence competed on "Dancing With the Stars," which was where he introduced pro dancer Cheryl Burke to his brother, actor Matthew Lawrence. The two hit it off, and began dating the following year. That relationship didn't last long, and they split up in 2008 — only to rekindle the spark in 2017. After getting engaged in 2018, the pair tied the knot the following year.

The sad truth, however, is that Cheryl Burke's marriage to Matthew Lawrence was doomed before they even married. Wedded bliss proved to be short-lived; less than three years later, in February 2022 she filed for divorce. She subsequently revealed they'd unsuccessfully undergone couples therapy before they split. Rumors of Lawrence's infidelity, however, surfaced after Burke posted a TikTok video in which she accused an unnamed ex of cheating. "When he said he would never talk to her again, yet I found text messages, Viagra, and a necklace hidden in a pair of his shoes," the dancer wrote. Those rumors weren't exactly refuted when, just a few months after their divorce was finalized, Lawrence and TLC member Chilli took their romance public. 

As Burke subsequently explained, there were a lot of factors that contributed to the dissolution of her marriage. One of these was that her career was on the rise, and she was working constantly, while Lawrence's acting career had hit a low ebb and he'd hardly been working at all. "A man may feel a little emasculated when he doesn't make the majority of the money," she said while appearing on the "I Do, Part 2" podcast. "I think that may have taken a toll."

In 2018, Cheryl Burke made a decision that changed pretty much every aspect of her life: she quit drinking. She didn't reveal this until 2020 when she was already two years sober. "It was just a decision that I made for myself," she said while appearing on the "Ladygang" podcast, pinpointing her engagement party as the turning point when she realized she was done with alcohol.

The following year, she celebrated her third year of sobriety in an essay she penned for Us Weekly, and she got super candid. "My biggest struggle through it has been actually feeling my feelings," she wrote. "I've been through a lot in my past and alcohol used to numb those dark thoughts and feelings, but now I have to face them as they come up."

Her journey has continued, and in July 2025, she celebrated entering her seventh year of sobriety, revealing that she was initially fearful that getting sober would cost her the fun and freedom she thought alcohol gave her. As she wrote in an Instagram post, it wasn't until after giving it all up, however, did she come to realize that freedom had been an illusion. "I used to believe alcohol gave me confidence, connection, and control.Turns out, it stole those things quietly — day by day — until I couldn't recognize my own reflection," she wrote.

In 2020, Cheryl Burke teamed up with her "Dancing With the Stars" partner AJ McLean, of once-popular boy band Backstreet Boys, to launch a podcast, in which the two discussed their mutual sobriety while offering fans a candid glimpse at their lives. "'Pretty Messed Up' is about really getting to know who we are behind the glitz and glam, behind the ABC family-oriented type show where I'm heavily edited," she told People. 

When that season of "DWTS" ended, so did the podcast. Burke, however, wasn't done with podcasting, and in 2022 she unveiled "Burke in the Game," in which the recently divorced celeb shared her vulnerabilities and anxieties about diving back into the dating pool. "This is the first time I think anyone, including myself, is going to see or hear me be as vulnerable as I have to be," she told People. "I'm always hiding behind the mirror ball."

"Burke in the Game" concluded at the end of 2022, and the following year she returned with another podcast, "Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans." Unlike her previous efforts, this podcast was all about "Dancing With the Stars" gossip, with Burke spilling the tea on her decade-plus on the show. As a result, "Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans" became one of Apple's most popular podcasts until December 2023 when she decided to shut it down. "After an incredible journey, I've made the bittersweet decision to say farewell — for now — to this podcast," she wrote on Instagram.

In an abrupt announcement, Cheryl Burke shocked fans of "Dancing With the Stars" by revealing she was leaving the show. "Tomorrow night will officially be my final dance as a pro dancer on @dancingwiththestars," she wrote on Instagram. "This has been one of the absolute hardest decisions of my life [and] I am also confident that it is the right one."

Her decision to exit, she later explained, was simply due to the physical toll all that dancing was taking on her, which increased as she grew older. "There is wear and tear," she told E! News, while also revealing she had a desire to pursue some other opportunities, which proved to be difficult given the intensity of the show's schedule. "If I were to just talk as an athlete, a dancer and a woman, my time has been up. I'm 38 years old. When I came on as a competitive dancer at 21, it was a different story," she told Variety. 

However, she also made it clear that she was open to returning to "DWTS" — not as a pro dancer, but as one of the show's judges. "They are very well aware that I want that seat," she said. "I just know that I can contribute because I am an expert in ballroom dancing."

In the fall of 2025, Cheryl Burke finally received an opportunity to sit behind the "Dancing With the Stars" judging desk, serving as a guest judge during the annual Halloween episode. Viewers who hadn't seen her since her last appearance on the show in late 2022, however, expressed their surprise at her svelte physique, having lost more than 40 pounds in the interim.

Many took to social media to share their impressions of her weight loss, which Burke addressed in an Instagram post. "I have seen so many mixed reviews, which is totally fine, but what's not okay is that I've also seen so many aggressive ones and a lot of body-shamming ones," she said. 

One of those body-shaming comments came from Ashley Dupré, stepmother of one of that season's "DWTS" celebs, TikTok star Alix Earle. Unhappy with Burke's score for her stepdaughter's routine, Dupré lashed out. "Oh, go take more Ozempic!" Dupré snarked in a TikTok video. Dupré was hit with backlash and later apologized to Burke in a subsequent TikTok. "I just wanted to jump on here and apologize for making comments that were insensitive," Dupré said.