Cheryl Burke: Maks Chmerkovskiy apologized for fat-shaming me — but there’s still no ‘closure’

Cheryl Burke and Maks Chmerkovskiy have moved forward from their rocky past, but one incident still stings a bit.

Burke, 39, recently recalled being fat-shamed by the Ukraine native, 43, and fellow pro Louis van Amstel during the heyday of “Dancing With the Stars.”

“He apologized years ago when this whole thing happened. He apologized to me and my mother, actually, which was nice of him,” Burke told The Post of Chmerkovskiy. “But look, is there closure? I don’t know if there’s closure. I mean, it’s not just because of him saying anything. It goes back to my dancing and competition career.”

“This has always been an issue because I am a curvy girl and that’s just the way it is. And I can’t change where my bones are or my hips. And it’s just — it is what it is. And either I accept it or I don’t. And obviously, when all your whole life it’s been centered around basically that, it’s hard to accept it,” she continued. “So I think at the end of the day, I [need] closure with myself. And in order for that to happen, I have to love me and the body that God blessed me with, really.”

Burke said that she began to get body-shamed by some harsh critics when the ABC dancing competition was “getting Super Bowl ratings” and she was paired with Drew Lachey in Season 2.

“It was pretty much at its peak. And with that obviously, me dancing with Drew Lachey was my first partner. That was in the midst of Nick [Lachey] and Jessica [Simpson’s] divorce. And I think that was when people started coming in a way after me and you can’t really — it’s hard because I was growing up in front of people’s eyes on TV. I started when I was 21, and your hormones change and I did gain some weight,” she told the Post. “I base my life off of seasons here, but I think it was like Season 7 or 8 right before I danced with Gilles Marini. And I’ll never forget being the center of the tabloids, just like, is she too fat for TV? All of these horrible comments. And it wasn’t just me. It was also Lacey Schwimmer at the time. And then some of these pro dancers agreeing with it.”

“The messaging that we put out there in society today isn’t necessarily healthy,” she continued. “I think we’re slowly getting there. I think we’re slowly getting better. But it is important to still represent that by action and not just by words.”

Burke, who recently had Chmerkovskiy as her guest on her new podcast, “Sex, Lies and Spray Tans,” said that joining the ABC series is a major adjustment for celebrity contestants with its very busy schedule.

“We don’t have a dietician or anything like that on the show. We need it! It’s stress. Some people eat when they’re stressed, some people don’t. And then some people lose sleep when they’re stressed. But like, it’s just the schedule,” she explained. “You cannot have a day off on the show. I don’t care what anyone says. Maybe in the beginning, during the training period you can, but it’s all at your own risk.”

“Yes, you could rehearse five days, three days a week. But again, if you want to look good compared to your competitors and your other competitors are rehearsing seven days a week and you have the option to, that’s what you’re going to choose to do,” she added. “And with that comes a lot of stress and a lot of calories burned … the intake of calories isn’t high. So it is an actual shock to the body, especially to people who’ve never moved their bodies like this before.”

Her advice for newcomers is to not “look too far ahead” in the competition.

“Just focus on what’s unfolding in front of you. … It’s hard because you’re getting these lines in a way fed to you from the producers, like, ‘Talk about winning the mirrorball’ Like, ‘Yo, it’s only week two.’ This is the thing. I refused to ever say that. And they know that now because it’s like, first of all, I don’t want to jinx anything. Second of all, we all know that you get judged at your freestyle dance. You can erase the history of what you’ve done on the show. It all matters to that one dance,” she told the Post. “But in the meantime, enjoy this journey because it goes by fast. And know that it is so important to really understand the show as a whole. Meaning it’s not just the dance competition. It really is about being vulnerable, especially to the celebrities. My advice would be just to be vulnerable. Let it all hang out. What do you have to lose? I think people like to see people struggle. And if you’re not struggling, everything’s all peaches and fun at rehearsals, we know that that’s not real as the audience member sitting at home. So don’t be scared to get in conflict once in a while because that’s normal. You’re being completely vulnerable and you’re doing this in front of millions of people every night. That can’t be easy.”

Burke left the ABC series after 26 seasons following the Season 31 finale in November 2022. She threw her hat in the ring for a possible judging role, but Season 32 has Carrie Ann Inaba, Derek Hough and Bruno Tonioli behind the table following lead judge Len Goodman’s death at age 78 in April.

“I would love to judge, but that’s obviously not up to me. A lot of the reason why I did leave the show is because, like anyone, I want to be able to grow within the company or within the franchise. And when I feel like I am stagnant — and by the way, super grateful for my experience. I’m not trying to badmouth the show by any means, but just as an individual, a human being, I’d like to evolve,” she said. “And I’ve always said that if it’s with the show, great. If it’s not with the show, great. But that’s not up to me.”

“Sex, Lies and Spray Tans” can be found on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you listen to podcasts.