‘DWTS’ Alum Cheryl Burke Apologizes to Former Partner for ‘My Personality and Attitude’

Cheryl Burke is getting real about her regrets in a heart-to-heart with former Dancing With the Stars partner Cody Rigsby.

The former pro apologized to the Peloton instructor on her Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast for her “personality and attitude” during their time together in Season 30, revealing she was going through marital issues with ex-husband Matthew Lawrence at the time.

“First of all, I just want to say to you, I apologize for my personality at that time and my attitude, because it had nothing to do with you. I just want you to know that,” Burke told Rigsby, who assured her he knew that there was more going on with her at the time.

Burke continued, “I wish that I was in a different time at that moment because I was really looking forward to dancing with you, and just from what I’d seen and people saying how fun you are, I wish I would have embraced that more.”

The professional dancer also said she agreed with Rigsby’s description of her as “very short and testy” in his 2023 memoir XOXO, Cody, adding, “I don’t know if it was also the longevity that I experienced on the show, but it was different. You saw a whole other side of me that no one has ever seen.”

“I didn’t know I had that in me as well, because I was going through a separation,” reflected Burke, whose divorce from Lawrence was filed just three months after the Season 30 finale in 2021. “There was a lot of things I had found out literally days before I met you.”

Rigsby assured Burke there were no hard feelings, and that he “had a lot of compassion for you because experiencing that show one time is exhausting, traumatizing.” The fitness pro continued, “You have to do so much soul searching and be so okay with yourself, just doing it once… For you, to have done that multiple seasons, it just has to take its toll on you, regardless of how strong an individual can be.”

“I hope you accept my apology,” Burke told her former partner. “I wish that things were different. But hey, it is what it is, and I’ve learned a lot. It sucks to think that if you would have danced with somebody else, you might have had a better experience… I will take our experience as a lesson as well. But also it was f-ing emotional.”

Burke would compete in one more season after Rigsby’s, performing alongside Good Morning America anchor Sam Champion in Season 31 before stepping back after 26 seasons on the show.