‘Dancing With the Stars’ Pro Peta Murgatroyd Thinks ‘Brady Bunch’ Star Barry Williams ‘Might Surprise Some People’ in Season 32 (Exclusive)

Peta Murgatroyd is feeling “confident” heading into the upcoming season of Dancing With the Stars with her partner Barry Williams. Ahead of the Sept. 26 premiere of the ABC dance competition show, Murgatroyd and her husband, DWTS alum Maksim Chmerkovskiy, opened up to PopCulture.com about how the Mirrorball winner and the Brady Bunch star could be the “dark horse” team of the season. 

“I’m feeling confident. I think Barry might surprise some people,” Murgatroyd told PopCulture. “He’s an amazing human being.” Having just returned to the ballroom after welcoming son Rio in June, Murgatroyd said she’s “thrilled” to have Williams by her side during this journey. “I feel like he’s the perfect partner for me this season,” she explained. “We’re not going too crazy with the rehearsals. We are just taking it chill and he’s just been amazing. Just a really nice person to spend four or five hours a day with. That’s what you really hope for truly, to be in a room with somebody who you really like – and I really like him.”

Growing up with the Brady Bunch being “huge” in her native Australia, Murgatroyd joked that Williams’ Greg Brady was the “oldest” and “hottest” brother on the show, asking her husband, “Can I say that?” Chmerkovskiy teased, “There’s some iconic figures that I am too humble to be jealous of.” And while Murgatroyd might be “too humble” to say it, Chmerkovskiy added of Williams, “I think he’s going to be a dark horse in this competition for sure.”

Returning to DWTS after giving birth to her second child, Murgatroyd told PopCulture she was working “really hard” in the gym to get back in competitive condition. “It’s definitely not easy, especially the second time around. It just takes a little more time, a little more effort the second time around,” the dancer, who also shares 6-year-old son Shai with her husband, shared. “But I’m feeling great. I’m feeling super positive, just I’ve got my energy back. I’m ready to dance. …I think It’s good for [mothers] to get out, do what we love to do, then come back refreshed for being a mom.”

As for Chmerkovskiy, he said his job is to “stay nearby and be available” for now, noting that while there’s a “long way ahead” for the family, it’s been a “blessed” year. “To be in a position to be active, to be working, to have the expansion of the family, I mean we are lucky by all stretch of the imagination,” he shared. “So it’s been hard. It’s been really active and really physically sort of enduring time. But I’m very proud of Peta. I’m just proud to be part of what she’s doing and how she’s doing it. So my job is simple, it’s just to help her out.”

One way Chmerkovskiy can help his family stay connected is with the launch of Hallmark + Venmo Cards. The pro dancers partnered with the new collaboration, which allows people to securely send money through Venmo to a specific person using a physical Hallmark card containing a QR code inside. For Chmerkovskiy, the convenience is huge. “I don’t know anybody who [says] ‘Let me take an hour of my day to go get a card’ and really be special,” he told PopCulture. “So we try to do this really fast, and a lot of times the wife would be saying, ‘Hey, did you get the cash for the card?’ because we’re on our way to … somebody’s celebration.”

Murgatroyd is all about the message of a card, while Chmerkovskiy admitted he’s “all about the present,” so the collaboration between Hallmark and Venmo is the perfect match for them. “It is just so convenient, so easy, and such a cool way of doing it,” Murgatroyd gushed. “Because you get to have the personal note and the convenience of having cash in your account.”