Brooke Burke Admits She Would Have Had a ‘Love Affair’ With ‘DWTS’ Partner Derek Hough

Brooke Burke had a love-hate relationship with Derek Hough during her stint on Dancing With the Stars — which eventually turned into a full-blown crush.

“Had I not been married … I would have actually hoped we would have had a love affair," Burke, 52, shared during the Monday, October 9, episode of the “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans With Cheryl Burke” podcast. "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."

Hough, 38, won his first-ever DWTS mirrorball trophy with Burke as his partner during the show’s seventh season in 2008. However, the duo’s relationship on the show was full of ups and downs.

Initially, the pair “weren’t gelling” and “were having issues,” but after going to therapy together, Burke started "crushing on Derek."

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"Something magical happened,” she recalled on the podcast. “We found faith in each other, at least I did, and we decided to win.”

While the twosome found some common ground, Hough was still “really tough” on Burke in the ballroom.

“I'm OK with tough love,” she explained. “He did not love me through routines and support me and tell me that it was amazing. He was brutally honest."

At the time, Burke was married to now-ex-husband David Charvet, but she understood why “people fall in love” on the competition show.

"For three months, you are in someone's arms,” Burke said. "It can be more intimate than making love in a bedroom — you're making love on a dance floor if you’re connected.”

She continued: "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. How many times do you go through an experience with someone where they're all you've got?"

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Despite her fantasies, Burke’s time on DWTS was “great” for her marriage to Charvet. The couple had welcomed their son, Shaya, just months before Burke’s appearance on the show.

"I was exhausted at night, but David really knew how to show up,” she recalled on Monday. “My family really took over to pick up the slack in raising each other. David was really supportive, and he is also a bit of a performer, so he understood the pressure."

Burke and Charvet, who also share daughter Heaven, announced their separation in 2018 after seven years of marriage. Their divorce was finalized in 2020. She was previously married to Garth Fisher, with whom she coparents daughters Neriah and Sierra, from 2001 to 2005. Burke is currently engaged to longtime love Scott Rigsby.

Hough, meanwhile, exchanged vows with Hayley Erbert earlier this year.