The Tragic Details Of Cheryl Burke Revealed

A championship ballroom dancer in her teens, Cheryl Burke came to national prominence when she joined "Dancing With the Stars" (DWTS) in its second season. Viewers immediately loved the show, which paired celebrities with professional dancers in a ballroom competition. Burke, however, was somewhat dubious when producers approached her about auditioning. "To be honest, I'd watched the first season and I thought it was kind of cheesy," she recalled in an interview with HuffPost, explaining that she and her dance partner — who was also her boyfriend — were going through a rough patch at the time. "But, things were kind of rocky with my partner and I, and after my parents and coach encouraged me to go for it, I decided to at least take the audition."

That audition changed her life. Landing a spot in the DWTS roster of dancers, Burke immediately became a fan favorite. She went on to win the Mirrorball Trophy in her debut season, repeating her victory the following year — an impressive accomplishment by any standard. Suddenly, she was being watched by millions of viewers each week on one of TV's most popular shows. "I never thought I would be on the number one hit show on television," she told Dance Magazine.

She parted ways with DWTS in 2022, embracing her new role as a podcaster extraordinaire while keeping several other irons in the showbiz fire. Her path to success, however, hasn't always been smooth, and she's experienced some difficult times along the way. To learn more, read on for a look at some tragic details about Burke.

One fact about Burke that many of her fans are unlikely to know is that she hasn't always gone by her current moniker. When she was born, her parents had given her a completely different name. "My name is Cheryl," she explained in a video that she shared via TikTok, "but my legal name (until I forced my parents to change it) was Stephanie." Continuing, Burke revealed that there was a very real and alarming reason that compelled her to make such a drastic alteration. "There was a girl in my middle school who bullied me named Stephanie, so I decided to make my legal name Cheryl Stephanie Burke," she wrote in the comment section of her post. 

The video was accompanied by a musical snippet of Kanye West's self-aggrandizing "I Love Kanye," arguably one of the times Kanye West was over the top, at least when it came to his lyrics. In accompanying comments, Burke revealed that "Stephanie" was inspired by the name of her father, Stephen. Cheryl, on the other hand, came from her mother's name, Sherri.

In the vein of celebrity memoirs that shook us to the core, Burke's 2011 memoir, "Dancing Lessons," features some shocking revelations. She opened up for the first time about a horrific experience from her childhood. As she wrote, she was just 5 when her parents, who'd recently divorced, enlisted family friend Gerry Depaula to babysit. During their time alone, Depaula repeatedly sexually abused Burke. "A lot of the physical stuff happened in his van, when he would come pick me up after school," she said (via ETOnline) in a 2015 TLC special, "Breaking the Silence." 

As she explained, she felt powerless — rightfully so as an unprotected youngster — and has since come to see that he manipulated her, already feeling untethered by her parents' divorce, into craving his affection. "I couldn't speak up for myself," she said in the special, as reported by ABC News. "It was hard for me to say no." His subsequent attempt to molest other girls, however, led to his arrest. 

Burke, then 9 years old, was called to testify at his trial, serving as the key witness for the prosecution. Burke recalled being terrified to face Depaula in court. "My mom was there holding my hand, I was shaking and there was my molester right in front of me. It was so terrifying to see him face to face," she said. Burke may have felt shaky, but her testimony helped to secure a conviction, leading to Depaula being sentenced to 24 years in prison. 

If you or someone you know may be the victim of child abuse, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child (1-800-422-4453) or contact their live chat services.

In 2018, Burke experienced the death of her father. While grieving the loss, she also had an epiphany that changed everything. Interviewed by "Extra," she explained that she'd watched her father's struggles with alcohol throughout his life. "For me, my dad was a former alcoholic, so it was either, I was going to crash and burn, or I was going to stop cold turkey," Burke said, as reported by Us Weekly. "It became, like, an everyday thing, me drinking," she added. "I needed to show myself, I guess, that this was not something that I depended on."

As one of the celebs who are proud to be sober, Burke's sobriety journey may have altered her life for the better, but it hasn't always been easy. In 2021, she revealed that she'd recently attended her first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. That led her to understand how helpful she found hearing from others who were going through the same things that she was. "I deal with a lot of social anxiety, but I realized that I needed to be able to hear other people's stories, other people who struggle with alcoholism and addiction," she said during an appearance on "Good Morning America." She reiterated the importance of community in an essay she wrote for Us Weekly. "The best way to learn is by listening to other people's stories, and realizing you are not alone."

Burke married actor Matthew Lawrence in 2019, with the two having met several years earlier when his brother, Joey Lawrence, competed on "Dancing With the Stars." After less than three years, it was all over; in February 2022, she filed for divorce. A few months later, she sparked rumors that Lawrence had been cheating, via a TikTok video in which she wrote, "When he said he would never talk to her again, yet I found text messages, Viagra, and a necklace hidden in a pair of his shoes."

The failure of her marriage in such a brief period led Burke to become reflective, pondering why things ended the way they did. One theory she came up with was that their respective careers were going in different directions, with Burke experiencing skyrocketing success while Lawrence's career ebbed. "A man may feel a little emasculated when he doesn't make the majority of the money," she said during an appearance on the "I Do, Part 2" podcast, via Us Weekly. "I think that may have taken a toll."

While the reason she and Matthew Lawrence split wasn't a secret anymore, her first instinct was to blame herself. "I think naturally, my brain went to, yeah — what did I do wrong? Did I not sleep with him enough? There's all these questions that I ask myself. Was I not there emotionally?" she said during that podcast appearance, as reported by People. However, she quickly came to understand that she was pointing the finger at the wrong person. "But ultimately, intellectually, I know, of course, it has nothing to do with me," she added. "It has everything to do with that person."

As Burke reflected on the various factors that led to her divorce, she couldn't help but look back on her own relationship history for answers. In doing so, she came to understand just how much the molestation she'd experienced as a child impacted her relationships as an adult. "As I got older, the impact of the abuse led to me being in abusive relationships, and being codependent on men for wrong reasons," she related when interviewed for HuffPost.

Appearing alongside Jada Pinkett Smith on her "Red Table Talk" series, Burke recalled one of those relationships, in which a former boyfriend whipped her with his belt in a fit of rage. "I would see these welts and even that, I was like, 'Oh, that's not really there,'" Burke said, describing the deep state of denial she was in at that time. "For me, love equaled abuse. Love equaled infidelity. Love equaled manipulating, narcissistic behaviors."

As time passed, she'd come to understand that the only way to get past it was to confront it head-on through therapy, which she admitted was not an easy process. "There was no quick fixes to any of this," she said while appearing on the "Oldish" podcast (via People). "There's none ... Believe me, I've tried it all. And it just comes back tenfold unless you do the work ... It's painful. This work is painful."

In September 2025, Cheryl Burke took to Instagram to reveal that she'd been diagnosed with OCD. As she explained, OCD and perfectionism weren't quite the same thing, but for her, they tended to dovetail together. She expressed that the same OCD-fueled perfectionist traits that made her so successful had also been contributing to her gradual psychological destruction. "Perfectionism has been both my fuel and my downfall," she admitted. 

She shared more during an interview with Us Weekly, revealing how the diagnosis had allowed her to put together the pieces of the puzzle she'd been struggling with for years. "It was really freeing when I got diagnosed because it made sense," she said, reiterating how her OCD had contributed to all that she'd achieved as a ballroom dancer, particularly on "Dancing With the Stars." "It also served its purpose as a ballroom dancer; I credit my OCD to the many times I made the finals on DWTS and how I made my partners into true dancers," she said. 

Amid struggles with her then-undiagnosed OCD, Cheryl Burke had also been experiencing some other issues with her mental health. "I definitely have body dysmorphia," she told Us Weekly, explaining that when she sees herself in the mirror, particularly during costume fittings, she's not seeing what others see. "I'm seeing somebody who most likely is heavier," she said, recalling how this mental image of herself could completely unravel her mood. "I was an angry person ..." she added.

She also opened up about her body dysmorphia in an Instagram post, admitting that getting it under control had been a "daily battle" for her. "Feeling self-conscious about my body has been an ongoing struggle, and body dysmorphia often distorts the way I see myself," she wrote. 

Interviewed by "Entertainment Tonight," Burke explained that body dysmorphia has been something she'd dealt with since childhood, and had been working hard to address. "I think what people sometimes don't understand is it is a lot of work [and] it takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of self-care," she said, pointing out that it's an ongoing process. "I have done so much work on myself from the inside out," she added. 

As Cheryl Burke explained to "Entertainment Tonight," her body dysmorphia peaked when she was on "Dancing With the Stars," due to those weekly fittings for the skimpy costumes she'd wear during dance numbers with celebrities. "I don't blame the show by any means, but it's just the name of the game," she said, but admitted that it impacted her in deep and unhealthy ways. "It would affect me to the point where I would weigh myself constantly [and] I would travel with a scale," she said.

She responded by drastically restricting her food intake and avoiding solid food completely. "I was on this, like, Hollywood diet, which was a liquid juice, basically," she said in a video she posted on YouTube. Another trick she attempted with food was to schedule when she'd consume meals. "I would only eat at night," she told Us Weekly, revealing that she'd come to realize crash diets like that are unhealthy and unsustainable. "I've learned that starving myself, then eating one big meal, doesn't work for my body," she said. 

If you need help with an eating disorder or know someone who does, help is available. Visit the National Eating Disorders Association website or contact NEDA's Live Helpline at 1-800-931-2237. You can also receive 24/7 Crisis Support via text (send NEDA to 741-741).

In November 2022, Cheryl Burke shared an Instagram post containing news that shocked fans of "Dancing With the Stars." "Tomorrow night will officially be my final dance as a pro dancer on [the show,]" she wrote, announcing her abrupt exit from the show in which she'd been a staple since 2006, when she was just 21 years old. Having spent most of her adult life in front of the camera on DWTS, moving on proved somewhat disorienting. 

"I do miss the camaraderie," she told Us Weekly on YouTube. She admitted that she experienced an identity crisis after parting ways with the show that had been such a big part of her life for so many years. "I don't know if I even feared it, because I didn't know it was going to happen, but I did [experience an identity crisis]," she said. "I'm figuring out who I am without that show."

Meanwhile, she also found herself grappling with some complicated, often-conflicting, and ever-evolving feelings about "Dancing With the Stars," which she discussed while appearing on the "Oldish" podcast. "A year ago ... there was a lot of resentment towards the show for many reasons, but we don't need to talk about that," she said, via Entertainment Now. "And now, there's so much peace, but I think there's maybe some sadness, but there's no anger."

One of the downsides of celebrity in the age of social media is the criticism and bullying that stars can experience. Over the years, that has been a phenomenon that his impacted Cheryl Burke quite closely, fueling her feelings of body dysmorphia and negatively affecting her mental health. 

Nasty online comments have also threatened her sobriety. As she told Us Weekly, online bullying increased the urge to relapse and have a drink, but she also came to realize that it would ultimately be something that would haunt her for a long time. "Yeah, it was something that I definitely thought about doing, but I wouldn't be able to live with that shame or guilt if I were to relapse," she said. "To have thrown seven years down the drain, I'd hate myself."

Despite the pressure and public scrutiny, Burke has remained steadfast in preserving the sobriety that she'd worked so hard to maintain over the years. "I've taken so much time to love who I see in the mirror, that is something that's also new to me, but I definitely am on that path," she said. "I would hate what I would see if I ever drank a sip of alcohol."

Luckily, Cheryl Burke's divorce from Lawrence was not among the most egregiously expensive divorces in Hollywood (she'd wisely insisted on a prenup). However, she eventually had to reconcile just how much psychological damage the experience had inflicted on her. During an appearance on the "I Do, Part 2" podcast in October 2025, Burke admitted that the divorce had seriously "tested" her, particularly given that it took place within the same time frame as her departure from "Dancing With the Stars," which was essentially a professional form of divorce.

"It wasn't just the divorce with my ex. It was the divorce with Dancing with the Stars all in one year, and then leaving my home I lived in for sixteen years and I moved to where I am today," Burke explained, as reported by Us Weekly. "So it's like, it's just, it was all happening in one year, and those are three big life changes. They say, if you hit five in one year, you're most likely going to check into the nearest mental institution." Admitting she had no regrets about what had taken place with her failed marriage, she also contended that scars had been inflicted, and they were still lingering. "To say that I haven't or still sometimes grieve would be a lie too," she observed. 

Fans of "Dancing With the Stars" were delighted when Cheryl Burke made a long-awaited return to the show in October 2025 — not as a dancer, but as a guest judge. During the years since she'd last been on the show, Burke had embarked on a health regimen that resulted in a 35-pound weight loss. Viewers certainly noticed her svelte physique, with some taking to social media to express shock at how much weight she had lost — and some even accusing her of taking Ozempic or some other weight-loss drug. 

Among those to chime in was Ashley Dupré, stepmother of "Dancing With the Stars" contestant Alix Earle. In a video that Dupré shared on TikTok, she is visibly unimpressed by the low score Burke gave Earle for her dancing, declaring, "Oh, go take more Ozempic!" Burke didn't stand for it and clapped back at the haters with a message she posted on Instagram addressing the comments that had been directed toward her on social media. "I have seen so many mixed reviews, which is totally fine, but what's not okay is that I've also seen so many aggressive ones and a lot of body-shaming ones," she said.