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Brooke Burke ‘Hoped’ to Have ‘Love Affair’ With ‘DWTS’ Partner Derek Hough: She Felt ‘So Connected’
Television personality and Mirrorball champ Brooke Burke competed on Dancing With the Stars in 2008 with partner (now judge) Derek Hough, but has only just revealed she was “tempted” to have an affair with him after she started “crushing” on him.
“Had I not been married … I would have actually hoped we would have had a love affair,” she told Cheryl Burke on the “Sex, Lies and Spray Tans” podcast on Sunday, October 8. “But listen, let me tell you why: You are intertwined with someone’s body when you’re not a dancer. There is no way that I have ever been so connected — besides with a lover or a husband — than I was with Derek. And it’s every single day. So, for three months, you are in someone’s arms. Why do you think people fall in love? You smell them, you feel them, you’re breathing with them.”
The TV personality, 52, was dating now-ex-husband David Charvet during her time on DWTS season 7 and the pair tied the knot in 2011. Brooke and David separated in January 2018, and she is now engaged to fiancé Scott Rigsby.
Brooke went on to admit that, for her, dancing “can be more intimate than making love in a bedroom.” Ultimately, her heightened feelings toward Derek, 38, blossomed from having to depend on him to perform perfectly week by week.
“If you have energy, you’re doing this dance and you’re in the rhythm, and then there’s trust, then you’re sharing fear, you’re doing something you’ve never done,” she continued. “How many times do you go through an experience with someone where they’re all you’ve got?”
After Brooke dropped the major bombshell in the interview, Cheryl, 39, shared how shocked she was about to hear about her confession and admitted that Derek would “freak out in a good way” over her past feelings.
“He kept telling me how hot you were on your season,” Cheryl said.
Though the Mirrorball Trophy wasn’t the only thing on Brooke’s mind, she and Derek lit up the dance floor weekly and became the season 7 winners. “I will always have a crush on Derek,” the fitness personality concluded, gushing that being on the show was “life changing.”
While Brooke is ready to walk down the aisle with her fiancé, Derek recently said “I do” with former DWTS professional dancer Hayley Erbert in August.
