Brooke Burke is providing some clarity to her controversial comments surrounding a potential affair with her former Dancing With the Stars partner, Derek Hough, as well as the reaction that her fiancé, Scott Rigsby, had to her statements.
Sitting down with host Tamron Hall on her eponymous show, Burke, 50, said that she was taken aback by the reaction to the comments, in which she said she was not only “crushing” on Hough, but that she was tempted to have a “love affair” with the dancer, 38.
“Honestly, it kind of blew me away too because it was headline after headline after headline,” Burke told Hall on Monday’s episode, trying to explain her mindset at the time when she shared her now-viral statement about Hough. “What I was talking about is the chemistry between pro and celebrity — when you’re on a show like that, you’re dancing, you’re breathing, you’re in each other’s arms.”
“You’re learning the dance, the rhythm, the struggle, the challenge, the triumph, the fear that you share when you step on down to that floor. It’s an extremely intimate experience.” Burke also answered Hall’s questions about how her fiancé reacted to the widely circulated story, sharing that he was “so fine” and understanding about what she said.
“You know he’s so cool and we have such strong boundaries — and I had those in my other marriage — which is why I feel so free to be honest,” Burke said. In the interview from early October, Burke joked that she was “crushing on Derek, for sure” while they competed together in 2008 on the show.
“Had I not been married,” Brooke said in the previous interview, “I would have actually hoped we would have had a love affair.”
Talking with Hall, however, the TV personality said that it wasn’t that she “wanted” to have an affair with Hough, but that she was trying to explain the chemistry that happens behind the scenes on the show.
“It wasn’t that I wanted to [have an affair], or we could’ve, or we should’ve, it was the reality in an adult conversation of that beautiful chemistry that happens,” Burke said. “And that’s why some people fall in love, but with Scott, I had to say, ‘Sorry baby, but you’re probably going to read about this a lot tomorrow,’ but he’s so fine.”
Burke, who won the mirrorball trophy – recently renamed to honor late judge Len Goodman – in 2008 later returned to the ballroom in 2010 as a co-host for the long-running ABC show.
When asked if she regretted the comments she made during the appearance on Cheryl Burke’s Sex, Lies and Spray Tans podcast, the Dancing With the Stars alum said that could not be further from the case.
Kelsey McNeal/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty ImagesKelsey McNeal/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
“I don’t regret saying it because I’m comfortable communicating and I’m a grownup and I’m in a monogamous, faithful relationship,” the TV personality said. Burke also told Hall that she did not ever cross any boundaries with Hough while they were on the show together and that she really sees the dancer-turned-judge as her “little brother.”
“He’s adorable, he’s really like my little brother. Saying I would have had an affair — maybe I was just chatting — we didn’t, let me just set the record straight, and I was in a faithful marriage,” she said, referencing her longtime partner David Charvet, with whom she shares two children.
Burke also has two older children from her first marriage to Garth Fisher.
“But it’s like that dance where you’re just, you’re so close and you’re so connected and that intimacy, you can’t fake that,” Burke said, adding that it was “sensual, not sexual.”
As for her fears going into her third marriage, the mom of four says she is just focused on setting a good example for their six children combined.
“I’m not scared of the big things, I’m scared of little things. But I just – wanting to get it right, wanting to lead by example, wanting to get it right this time for our children. I don’t think I got it wrong [in the past two marriages], but I think change was necessary, but I think we’re bringing in more mature, better versions of ourselves to the table,” she told Hall.
“We have six children, everybody’s on board. And so our intentions are not only for us and this new beautiful love, but it’s also for our family. So it’s a lot of communication, it’s a lot of love. And he’s amazing – we’ve got flow, it’s fun, he’s sexy, he’s easy. But I was willing to have my heart broken and not everybody is willing, third time around – it sounds like a lot, or even the second time around – to have a broken heart,” Burke shared.
RELATED CONTENT: