‘Dancing With the Stars’: Cheryl Burke Reacts to Gleb Savchenko and Chrishell Stause Affair Rumors

Cheryl Burke is weighing in on the rumors that fellow Dancing With the Stars pro Gleb Savchenko was having an affair with Selling Sunset‘s Chrishell Stause during the ongoing season of the ABC dance competition before being eliminated and subsequently announcing his divorce from wife of 14 years, Elena Samodanova.

Burke, who was eliminated from DWTS alongside dance partner A.J. McLean the week after Savchenko and Stause, discussed the “elephant in the room” on the Pretty Messed Up podcast, which she and McLean co-host. “Just because they dry hump on TV doesn’t mean it’s real,” Burke said. “This is the whole thing. When you’re in this world of Hollywood, you do reality shows and this stuff does happen.”

Seemingly referring to the sensual dance Stause and Savchenko performed during their last week on the show, which featured a bed as a prop, Burke compared doing a steamy dance on TV to acting in a sex scene in a movie. The pro added she doesn’t know if anything happened between the pair, but sympathized that this “can’t be easy” for either Savchenko or Samodanova, who announced they had split Friday. They share daughters Olivia, 9, and Zlata, 3. “S— happens, but I’m not saying anything has happened with them,” Burke noted. “Right now it’s just a big deal because Gleb and his wife are separating.”

After the two announced their divorce, Samodanova told PEOPLE that her trust in Savchenko has been “irrevocably broken” due to his alleged “ongoing infidelity.” She continued that “enough is enough,” accusing him of a “recent inappropriate relationship” in which she said he was seeing another woman who was buying him expensive gifts while he was still married. Savchenko countered back that his relationship with Stause was “strictly platonic” and that the cause for his divorce was “longstanding issues” in his marriage, not infidelity.

Stause also spoke out against the speculation she and Savchenko were romantically involved following her high-profile divorce from This Is Us star Justin Hartley. “I am so saddened about the news of Gleb and Elena’s split. It is unfortunate that this has caused rumors to swirl about my personal life,” she wrote on her Instagram Story after rumors began to swirl. “As you can imagine, the countless hours of training, and dance rehearsals has created a strong supportive friendship, but nothing more. I wish nothing but the best for both Gleb and Elena during this unfortunate time.”