11 Big Dancing With The Stars Secrets The Pros Never Wanted You To Know

The following article contains details of addiction, sexual abuse, body dysmorphia, and eating disorders.

"Dancing with the Stars" has transformed quite a bit since it first premiered in 2005, but many would say that things have only gotten better, especially when it comes to production quality. The very first season of the show only featured six ballroom pros, none of whom are still part of the show. In the years that followed, production has brought in some new dancers, but tends to stick with the same cast, as many have become fan favorites and an important part of the show's overall identity.

All of the show's dancers have maintained high levels of professionalism while associated with the show. While there has been some off-screen drama, the pros tend to keep things very upbeat and positive — status quo, if you will. However, there have been some secrets that have come out about the pros and their lives, be it personal or professional, that have surprised fans over the years. Many "Dancing with the Stars" pros have revealed that the physical demands of the show are far more intense than they appear on television. Injuries, exhaustion, and mental pressure are common, yet the dancers are expected to perform at a high level each and every week. Over time, some pros have also opened up about personal and professional struggles, offering fans a more realistic look at life behind the scenes, including some secrets that they never wanted you to know.

Professional dancer Cheryl Burke, who retired from "Dancing with the Stars" in 2022, has opened up about a struggle with body dysmorphia that was exacerbated while she was competing on the series. "You've seen me grow up on this show. I started when I was 21 years old. I went through this horrific 'she's too fat for TV, too,'" Burke said on an April 2024 episode of the "Amy & T.J." podcast. "I was growing into who I am as a woman, and with that I did gain weight, you know," she continued, later adding, "I am curvy in comparison to a lot of the other professional women so whenever I did gain weight it was a thing." In October 2024, Burke gave fans a bit of an update on how she was coping with body dysmorphia. "No matter how much progress I make, there's a part of me that constantly focuses on perceived flaws making it hard to feel confident regardless of what anyone may say or think... It's a daily battle between reality and the image my mind creates," she captioned an Instagram post at the time. 

Burke has been able to manage her body dysmorphia through therapy. She has acknowledged that there's no simple solution to healing from the mental health condition, but Burke has taken the steps to help her cope with how she feels about her body.

Julianne Hough has been a part of "Dancing with the Stars" for many years — and in many different roles. She started off as a pro dancer before leaving the show and returning as a judge. Since 2023, Hough has served as the show's co-host alongside Mirrorball champion Alfonso Ribeiro. In a 2013 interview with Cosmopolitan, Hough said that she was "abused mentally, physically, everything" over the course of her childhood (via The Hollywood Reporter). Then, in August 2024, Hough spoke more candidly of the sexual abuse that she suffered at the hands of a neighbor when she was 4 years old. The conversation occurred on an episode of "The Jamie Kern Lima Show." 

"I've actually never said that out loud to anybody in an interview before," Hough admitted. She went on to say that she had apparently blocked out that particular time in her life, only to think about it again when she was older. Hough also admitted that there were "other things" that happened to her later in her childhood. Hough said that she didn't tell anyone about what was going on — at least not right away. "Instead, we just pivoted and we just moved — which is good, get out of a situation — but also that's another thing which is for me, just pivot, pivot, pivot," she explained. When she finally did tell her parents, she said that her mom didn't handle the issue directly. "She just wanted to move and leave. She didn't want to deal with it," Hough recalled. In the time since, Hough has worked through some of that trauma and mended her relationship with her parents.

It's no secret that "Dancing with the Stars" pros have had flings with their celebrity students over the years, and some have even walked away from the show completely in love. Take Kym Johnson Herjavec and her Season 20 partner, Robert Herjavec, who ended up getting married after their time competing together, for example. Not all of these ballroom romances have worked out, however. For longtime "DWTS" pro Gleb Savchenko, infidelity apparently ruined his marriage to Elena Samodanova. Back in 2020, there were rumors that Savchenko was hooking up with his partner, Chrishell Stause, though she denied having any sort of romantic relationship with him. Stause maintained that she was actually hooking up with another pro — Keo Motsepe. 

At the time, Samodanova, who had been married to Savchenko since 2006, publicly accused her then-husband of having an affair. "After 14 years of marriage, and multiple affairs, I've decided enough is enough," Samodanova told People magazine. "Gleb's ongoing infidelity and a recent inappropriate relationship has created turmoil in our marriage and absolutely torn our family apart," she continued. After Samodanova filed for divorce, he spoke out and denied her accusations. "I've never actually cheated on her. Never, ever, ever," Savchenko told Entertainment Tonight. "All of those partners that I danced with, it might have looked on TV like [it was something more], but it never was the case," he added.

In 2015, British television personality Fern Britton claimed that Artem Chigvintsev was physically aggressive during rehearsals for the UK version of "DWTS," "Strictly Come Dancing." "We would be in hold and he would look at my feet and just kick me or shove me," Britton told HuffPost in an interview published in April 2015. She explained that Chigvintsev made his intentions clear, allegedly telling her, "You just stand there and don't move, I dance around you," and, at one point, Fern claimed that Chigvintsev said, "Go home before I kill you." In a statement to The Independent, Chigvintsev denied Britton's claims.

Chigvintsev joined the cast of "Dancing with the Stars" in 2014 as part of the show's troupe before being promoted to a pro his very next season. He had some great success in the ballroom, winning the Mirrorball Trophy alongside "Bachelorette" star Kaitlyn Bristowe on Season 29 and finding love with Nikki Garcia, whom he danced with on Season 25. Chigvinstsev's personal life fell apart in 2024 when he was arrested following an argument with Garcia at their home in Napa Valley. Though the charges against him were dropped, Garcia filed for divorce from Chigvinstsev in September 2024. "It completely ruined everything for me. From every angle. It ruined my life completely," Chigvintsev said during a February 2025 episode of "The Glamorous Grind" podcast. He hasn't been a pro on the show since his arrest and its aftermath. 

Lacey Schwimmer got her start in competitive ballroom dancing at a young age. In 2007, she wound up on "So You Think You Can Dance," another popular dance competition program that airs in the U.S. In 2009, Schwimmer talked about her struggle with an eating disorder, which started when she was 13 years old. "I was really, really scary thin," she told Access Hollywood. "My waist [was] insanely thin; my hair was starting to fall out; it was getting thin. My skin looked gray and that's when... I was like, 'Alright, this isn't cool.' I saw other girls that were healthy and happy at my age and I was not like that whatsoever," she explained. 

As the years went on, Schwimmer was hyper aware of her weight, and was devastated when two male "Dancing with the Stars" pros — Maks Chmerkovskiy and Louis van Amstel — made comments about the weight of the female dancers on the show. "I said, 'Guys, you know the camera adds 10 pounds. You have to do something about this,'" Chmerkovskiy told TV Guide in an interview (via the Los Angeles Times). Meanwhile, van Amstel said, "If [the viewers] watch someone who's dancing her butt off and she's still heavy, they can be discouraged." Though Schwimmer didn't say anything at the time the comments were made, she later opened up about how their words affected her. "Oh, my God, it ruined me. I remember crying and crying and crying," she said on an October 2023 episode of Cheryl Burke's "Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans" podcast.

Cheryl Burke struggled with alcohol abuse for years, even while she was competing as a pro on "Dancing with the Stars." She managed to keep her drinking under wraps, but eventually talked about how it affected her life. "There was something in my head and I had never experienced it before. I wasn't drunk, I wasn't hungover, but it was still when I was drinking. I remember messing up on my own choreography. It was this crazy voice in my head saying," Burke recalled on an October 2020 episode of the "Pretty Messed Up" podcast. In an essay she penned for Us Weekly in September 2021, Burke revealed that she'd only recently started talking about her alcohol use, previously keeping it a secret.

In July 2025, Burke celebrated seven years of sobriety. "When I finally decided to take accountability for my drinking, I was terrified," she said on Instagram in September 2025. "In all transparency, I just didn't want to have to admit that I didn't have any control." Burke went on to explain that taking responsibility for her life helped her feel a sort of freedom that helped her get sober — and stay sober over the past several years.

Maks Chmerkovskiy was partnered with soccer star Hope Solo on "Dancing with the Stars" back in 2011 and suffice it to say, the two didn't get along. While they did their best to keep things professional in front of the cameras, all bets were off after they were eliminated from the competition. In her 2012 memoir, "Solo: A Memoir of Hope," Solo claimed that Chmerkovskiy "slapped" and "manhandled" her during their rehearsals. "[He] hit my stomach so hard with his open palm that I had a red handprint there for the rest of the day," she wrote, according to Us Weekly. She went on to say that producers offered for her to switch partners, but she chose not to because she didn't want to "end Maks' career." Chmerkovskiy denied the allegations.

He also made his feelings about Solo quite clear while playing a round of F***, Marry, Kill on the "Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss" podcast. "She's just a sh**** person. People can be bad or good or whatever. You can have a sh**** life growing up. You can have a tough upbringing. You can have history. You can have whatever. But, if you are just a bad person, you know what I mean? There's no excuse for that," he said, choosing to "kill" the Olympian in the game.

Cheryl Burke was partnered with Ian Ziering on Season 4 of "Dancing with the Stars." While things seemed to be going well between the two, Burke would later admit that she despised working with the "Beverly Hills: 90210" star. In an April 2016 episode of the "Allegedly" podcast, Burke got brutally honest about her former partnership with Ziering. "My least favorite would be Ian Ziering. The fact that his name is not 'ee-an' and it's 'eye-an' makes me want to throw up," Burke said (via Us Weekly). "Think of spending time with that for, like, eight to 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for three months," she continued, before saying that it made her want to "slit [her] wrists."

Burke would eventually apologize to Ziering for the comments that she made on the podcast. "I sent an email like a couple of years ago," she told the New York Post. "I just wanted to publicly apologize. But before I publicly apologized, I wanted to just to do it personally. And he responded. It was short and sweet," she added. Despite the fact that Burke didn't enjoy her season with Ziering, the two went far in the competition, making it all the way to the semi-finals. 

During Season 29 of "Dancing with the Stars," Sharna Burgess experienced what she'd later describe as one of her most uncomfortable partnerships. Speaking on her "Old-ish" podcast in 2023, Burgess said that tensions with Jesse Metcalfe escalated early in the season, ultimately affecting both their working dynamic and their early exit from the competition. Burgess said the situation became so uncomfortable that after the first few weeks she could no longer be alone in a room with the "Desperate Housewives" star.

Burgess did not go into detail about what happened or what made the partnership so problematic, but Metcalfe's representative was quick to respond. They told People magazine that Burgess' comments were "reckless" and called her "unprofessional." The rep also maintained that while Burgess and Metcalfe "didn't get along," that was about all there was to it.

Burgess later addressed the backlash in an interview with the New York Post. "He hasn't reached out to me. And I did see his team's, you know, very big response to the article. And listen, those are his words that he chose. And I have shared what I needed to share," she said. She went on to explain that she told production about what happened and everything was handled at that time, noting the that network's legal team was also involved.

As the years have gone on, it has become evident to some fans that "Dancing with the Stars" seems to be more of a popularity contest than a dance competition. While dancing technique is certainly a big part of the show, someone with a huge social media following (like Charli D'Amelio on Season 31) or someone who simply wins the hearts of the viewers (not unlike Andy Richter on Season 34) could stay in the competition longer than someone else who may be a better dancer at the end of the day. Some pros may not want to admit that the show is leaning this way, but former pros Maks Chmerkovskiy and his wife, Peta Murgtroyd, weighed in on the theory during a 2025 interview with E! News.

"It's always been how it's been: a popularity contest," Murgatroyd acknowledged. "The best dancer doesn't always win. ... People are going to vote for who they love." Perhaps the biggest example of this was when Bobby Bones nabbed the Mirrorball Trophy alongside Sharna Burgess on Season 27. Yes, Bones was good and he came a long way over the course of the season, but most people — including him — would agree that he wasn't the best dancer on the season. "I didn't run out and [say], like, 'I'm the best.' I tried as hard as I could and I got sevens, a couple sixes. A couple eights," he admitted on a September 2025 episode of the "Trading Secrets" podcast.

If you or anyone you know needs help with addiction issues, is struggling with an eating disorder, or has been a victim of sexual assault, please reach out to the resources below:

• Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
• Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).
• Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).