Cheryl Burke apologizes to Ian Ziering for saying she’d rather ‘slit my wrists’ than dance with him

They teamed up to compete together more than one decade ago on Dancing With The Stars. 

And Cheryl Burke apologized to Ian Ziering for negative comments she made in 2016 about their partnership on the hit competition show.

During a conversation about narcissists on the Pretty Messed Up podcast with AJ McLean and Rene Elizondo Jr., the 36-year-old professional dancer attempted to make amends with past mistakes.

‘The one thing I truly regret and want to make amends with is Ian Ziering,’ she said. ‘I was completely out of line a few years ago, and I did a podcast where they were asking me who my favorite partner was and who did I hate the most. 

‘And I answered Ian Ziering, and I said something along the lines of ‘I’d rather slit my wrists than dance with Ian Ziering again.’

Cheryl was partnered up with the Beverly Hills, 90210 star for the fourth season of the popular ABC dancing show in 2007.

While they earned high scores throughout the competition, they were ultimately voted out and took home fourth place. 

Years after their appearance together, Cheryl  said: ‘That’s the true colors that they didn’t show on Dancing With The Stars … Think of spending time with that for, like, eight to 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for three months. 

‘It made me want to slit my wrists. I was, like, crying to the executives. I was like, “Is there any way to please just eliminate us?” They’re like, “We can’t. We can’t do that.” And I swear, every time I asked, we just kept going. We would last till the end.”

Burke also noted to AJ and Rene: ‘I truly am so sorry for being so inconsiderate and just talking trying to get a reaction and putting him as my punching bag really … I took it to that next level of nastiness.

‘I was so nasty. And I’m here to publicly apologize to Ian and his family … I lost a lot of respect for myself. It haunts me till this day.’

Cheryl was the first female professional to win the show, and also the first professional to win twice and consecutively. 

She’s appeared on 23 seasons of DWTS and won the second season with Drew Lachey in addition to earning the mirrorball trophy on season three with Emmitt Smith.