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Cheryl Burke is opening up about her time being paired up with "nice" dance partners and why exactly they gave her "the ick."
The Dancing with the Stars alum appeared on a recent episode of the Oldish podcast where she explained how the traumatic experiences she had during her childhood, especially the sexual abuse she endured as a child, had lasting impacts well into her adulthood, per People.
As she got older, she turned to unhealthy relationships and was "attracting physical and mental abuse" because it was all she knew and "it felt like home." It even affected her life as a professional dancer.
"I remember feeling so disgusted when I would have a nice dance partner, let's say, who would treat me with respect," she said. "Now that's how much I hated myself, to the point where I was disgusted by people who were nice to me because, obviously, which I didn't know back then, but I didn't think I deserved that type of treatment. It was so foreign to me, it was like it gave me the ick."
Burke admitted that her past is also part of the reason why she hasn't wanted to date anyone since her split from Matthew Lawrence in 2022, saying, "This is why I've been single, and I choose to be single until I can — well there's no magic switch — but I know I'm not ready to day yet."