Dancing with the stars alum Cheryl Burke has had plenty of well-matched partners in the ballroom, but finding her leading man off the dance floor has proven challenging.
The Sex, lies and spray tanning The podcast host exclusively tells PEOPLE that while she’s “not actively looking” for love, she recounts several bad dating stories.
“I’m not like, hey, closet number one. Obviously, nobody’s going to be in this house, but I’m also not on a dating app,” shares Burke, 39. “Look, I’m not actively looking. I’ve been on dates, absolutely, but is there what to brag about? No. I’m not even in a serious relationship.”
Cheryl Burke wants to avoid ‘stagnant’ dynamic in next relationship: ‘I’m not going to live that again’
Since ending her three-year marriage to Matthew Lawrence, 43, she plans to be “less eager to publicize exactly what’s going on in my personal life.”
She explains, “For example, I don’t want anyone to know where I’ve moved. There’s a sense of privacy because I’m an open book—I’m an open book where I can help people. Now, knowing where I am geographically, that’s not going to help anyone.”
(L-R) Cheryl Burke and Matthew Lawrence. David Livingston/FilmMagic, Jim Smeal/Shutterstock
Burke says she hopes her future partner can see beyond the glitz and glamor of her career.
“My identity is also not defined by the outside world. And whether or not I’m on TV is not defined by that. It has everything to do with meeting you without all that preparation,” she says. “If you defined yourself by the outside world, you would be a miserable person.”
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Although navigating this “was tough” and she’s “still working on it,” Burke says she’ll “do this forever” because she sees it “from the inside out.”
“If you were defined by your external sources like I was, I absolutely was. I was defined [being] dancer. I was literally defined by the place I won in this last season Dancing with the stars: Did I win? [If I did] Okay then, maybe I’d be a little more confident than I was if I was the third person eliminated. It’s not stable. It doesn’t make me feel safe, and it never has. So I think that’s very important when I find a partner.”
Burke adds, “That person also needs to be doing the same kind of work or at least know that it’s always a work in progress, because I just don’t believe you ever stop working on your mental health. You’re evolving even if you say ‘I’m fine’ or ‘I’m going to therapy for you’, and taking responsibility is very important to me.”
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Cover for Cheryl Burke’s new iHeartRadio podcast, ‘Sex, Lies and Spray Tans’.
iHeartPodcasts
Now Burke has focused on hosting Sex, lies and spray tanningwhich debuted Monday on iHeartRadio.
Pod will offer a behind-the-scenes look at all the drama, romance and more from her 25 seasons DWTS. Many of Burke’s former on-screen partners, actors, friends and friends will join her on the podcast.
“This is my third podcast. I was lucky enough to do it with iHeart Media and it was an interesting conversation,” she explains. “When we first talked about a podcast like this, because, there’s a fine line, obviously I don’t want to upset anybody, obviously, on the show, but this has nothing to do with any kind of negativity. If anything, this is a tribute to the show which I’ve been in for half my life.”
For his 16 years and more than 20 seasons on the show, Burke adds, “I feel like I owe it to the fans to really take them back behind the scenes of my journey so far.”
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New episodes of Burke’s iHeartRadio podcast Sex, lies and spray tanning drop weekly on major podcast platforms.
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Source: HIS Education