Dancing With the Stars Season 32 Cast Revealed
Dancing With the Stars Season 32 Cast Revealed
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Brooke Burke revealed that working with Derek Hough on Dancing with the Stars got off to a rocky start 15 years ago but ended with a lasting crush on the professional dancer.
“I definitely had a crush on Derek,” she told her “DWTS” co-star Cheryl Burke on Sunday’s episode of Cheryl’s podcast “Sex, Lies and Spray Tans.” (And no, the Burkes are not related.) Brooke, the celebrity dancer, was paired with then-23-year-old Hough in Season 7 of the show in 2008.
“If I hadn’t been married, I would have actually hoped that we would have a romantic relationship,” Brooke said.
At the time, she was dating actor David Charvet. The couple married in 2011 and she filed for divorce in 2018.
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Brooke explained: “You’re intertwined with someone’s body. Unless you’re a dancer, I’ve never had as strong a connection with a lover or husband as I do with Derek, every day.”
“You lie in someone’s arms for three months. Why do you think people fall in love? You smell them. You feel them. You breathe with them,” she said. “It can be more intimate than making love in the bedroom. You kind of make love on the dance floor when you’re really connected.”
Cheryl was shocked by Brooke’s admission and insisted Hough was “going crazy… in a good way.”
“He kept telling me how hot you were on your season,” Cheryl said.
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Brooke concluded that competing with Hough on “DWTS” was “life-changing,” adding, “I will always have a crush on Derek.”
She is currently engaged to her fiancé Scott Rigsby, who works in real estate, while Hough and his former “DWTS” professional dancer Hayley Erbert married in August.
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Brooke Burke and Derek Hough had ‘off-camera problems’ on ‘DWTS’
On the podcast, Brooke discussed the journey that led to her and Hough winning season seven of Dancing with the Stars.
The fitness guru and TV personality, who later co-hosted multiple seasons of the competition show, confessed that she and Hough “just didn’t connect” at first.
“We didn’t laugh. We had issues off camera and in rehearsals,” she said.
But after consulting with a life coach, “something magical happened and we found trust in each other – at least I did – and just decided to win.” Although Hough was “brutally honest,” “it made me better,” Burke said.
After working as a professional dancer on “DWTS” for nine years, Hough joined the jury in 2020. Brooke Burke co-hosted the show from seasons 10 to 17 before announcing shortly before the season 18 premiere that she would not be returning.
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