Dancing With The Stars' Cheryl Burke is revealing her struggles to maintain her sobriety. The professional dancer joined the long-running reality competition series back in the second season, where she won with 98 Degrees' singer Drew Lachey. She came out on top the following season with retired football player Emmitt Smith. While she has yet to win another DWTS season, she came close multiple times, including landing in third place with actor Cristian de la Fuente, second place with actor Gilles Marini, second place with TV personality Rob Kardashian, third place with actor William Levy and third place with TV personality Jack Osbourne.
DWTS pro dancer Burke has talked in the past about her sobriety, including last fall when she said on Good Morning America that her husband, actor Matthew Lawrence, has been "my rock" during her sobriety. Therapy and meditation have been immensely helpful as well. Her struggles increased exponentially when she moved to Los Angeles. Burke and Lawrence, who is best known for playing Jack Hunter on Boy Meets World, held their wedding in 2019. They got engaged the previous year after a 10-year break from their relationship.
Now Burke is speaking out again about her struggles with sobriety, this time on her podcast, Pretty Messed Up. She revealed that she's "been feeling like drinking again, a lot lately." Burke told a story about how she and her husband went to Hawaii to celebrate their anniversary, and the hotel sent a bottle of champagne to their room. "They obviously didn't know I don't drink," she said. "But then [Lawrence] had a little bit and never ever have I been triggered the last two and a half years until that day." Then while at a friend's birthday party, that temptation returned. She added, "I'm like two seconds away [from drinking]. If I start, I can't have just one...I have a lot of personal stuff going on at the moment, so I feel like I'm walking a really tight rope at the moment. Therapy's not working right now."
Burke realized how "co-dependent" she is on her podcast co-hosts, Backstreet Boys singer AJ McLean (whom she danced with on DWTS last fall) and dancer Rene Elizondo Jr., to help her through all of these struggles since they personally know what she's going through. During the conversation, Burke ended up asking if Elizondo would be her Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor. The dancer replied, "Nothing excites me more than somebody that's willing to do what AJ and I have done...being open to what we've done...I promise you, you're going to live a life beyond your wildest dreams." McLean had one request of Burke, and that was "to show up and [have] the desire to drop drinking. That's it."
It can't be easy for Burke to be going through this journey in the public eye. She could have kept these comments off the air and only dealt with it privately. But opening up to her fans about trying to stay sober and the temptation to drink will be helpful to anyone experiencing the same struggles. A fan listening to her podcast who's in a similar situation might take solace in knowing they're not alone and there are people who can help. Burke is lucky to have friends like McLean and Elizondo in her life; not everyone does. While it's unknown if Burke will return to Dancing With The Stars for the milestone 30th season, if she does she'll be able to lean on her friends to help her along the way.
Source: Pretty Messed Up/Apple Podcasts
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