‘DWTS’ Alum Cheryl Burke Reveals Why Charlie Sheen Backed Out of Show

Charlie Sheen almost appeared on a season of Dancing With the Stars. Former pro Cheryl Burke revealed the news to his ex-wife, Denise Richards, on Burke’s Sex, Lies and Spray Tans podcast. “Fun fact: I danced with Charlie for one day,” Burke said. “Maybe you don’t know,” she added in her conversation with Richards. “So, he was going to do the show.”

Burke says she got a call from Dancing With the Stars casting director Deena Katz during the show’s hiatus. “She was like, ‘Look, we have someone who is a huge name and his team wants you to train him,’” Burke explained. “I said, ‘Are you sure?’ Because if I’m trying to convince someone to do the show, I might not be the person. Because I hate lying. I just don’t want to lie [about] how the process is,” she said, explaining the show and dance training is rigorous. “It’s beautiful, but it’s freakin’ a lot of work,” she said. “I’m not even going to deny that. There’s a lot of press, there’s a lot of interviews.”

Burke met Sheen in secret at the rehearsal studio. “I taught him a few steps,” she said. Sheen and Burke connected on their personal substance abuse issues. “I’m sober now for almost six years and I just had a lot of compassion for him. He seemed so cool. We had so much fun.”

“He started asking me questions,” Burke continued. “He asked me, ‘How many interviews do we have to do? Do we have to go and do press?’ And I told him, ‘Yeah, we do.’” Sheen was nervous about the media attention and critical of his performance and how well he’d do in the competition. 

“He judged himself right away,” Burke told Richards. “He was like, ‘I suck at this.’ I’m like, ‘No, this is just the first few steps.’ I taught him a waltz or something. We talked more than we danced, to be honest.” He ultimately chose to walk away, but Burke believes he would have been “a great candidate.” Richards did not. “He doesn’t like to work out,” Richards joked about her ex. “There’s a lot of physical activity with dancing.”

Sheen and Richards were married from 2002 to 2006. The future Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star filed for divorce in 2005 during her second pregnancy, accusing Sheen of making death threats against her, and she was granted a temporary restraining order against him. Their marriage was reportedly riddled with infidelity and abuse, and Sheen struggled with substance abuse. He later came out to reveal his HIV-positive status, with Richards and their children unaffected health-wise.