‘The Masked Dancer’ Runner-Up Maksim Chmerkovskiy Says Wife Peta Murgatroyd Was ‘Jealous’ of His Dances

Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s time on The Masked Dancer had wife Peta Murgatroyd feeling pretty “jealous” as she competed on Dancing With the Stars with NFL player Vernon Davis in Season 29. After placing second as the Sloth on Wednesday’s season finale of The Masked Singer spinoff, Chmerkovskiy told Us Weekly that his time competing was a totally different ballgame than his wife being a pro on DWTS.

“Oh, my God, she would come home from Dancing With the Stars so neurotic,” the professional dancer shared. “No one knows how hard it is for the pros. She was working so hard and asked me how my day was, and I said, ‘Oh, it was great! I loved it!’ And she said, ‘Ugh.’ It was a completely different reaction.” Having competed in the finale against Maddie Ziegler as the Tulip and Gabby Douglas, who would go on to win as Cotton Candy, Chmerkovskiy said the kinds of dances he got to do as Sloth really made his wife envious.

“She is putting in 24/7, thinking and choreographing and being a psychiatrist and executing the routine. If you’re fully committed, it’s so, so hard,” he explained of the difference between his wife’s workload and his. “Nowadays, it’s all about the celebrities, so it was [a] completely different experience.”

Looking back on his time on The Masked Dancer, he reflected, “I was the celebrity on a dance show where I had dancers responsible for my participation. [I thought], ‘What have I done right to earn this?’” The former DWTS pro shared that he intentionally chose the Sloth due to the relaxed routines associated with the slow-moving animals. “When I was offered the show, I wanted to show up and really do the least choreography and all that I possibly could,” he explained. “We spend so much time on DWTS doing everything and I just wanted to show up and really take it easy.”

Learning that Seal had competed on The Masked Singer but not won, the Ukraine-born dancer said he shifted his mindset from competition to just wanting to have fun. “I wanted no responsibility for myself. I wanted to walk in, be told what to do and walk out!” he explained. “I wanted the closest possible experience to celebrities on DWTS.” That doesn’t mean he phoned it in on the performances, which he said he did “full out.” There was more of a concentration on “misdirection” when it came to hiding his identity from the panel and viewers. “That’s why my first number was jazzercise, then the ribbon dance. It was easy to hide in those numbers,” he shared. “This was really crazy!”