Brooke Burke Recalls 'Sensual' Experience on “DWTS” with Derek Hough but Says 'There Was Nothing Funny Going On'

"I really felt like Derek and I were telling a love story on the dance floor,” she tells PEOPLE of her time on the show in 2008

Brooke Burke was just being “open and honest” when discussing her intense chemistry with Dancing with the Stars partner Derek Hough.

Burke, 52, tells PEOPLE that she and her longtime friend Cheryl Burke simply “got to chatting” as she appeared on an episode of Cheryl’s Sex, Lies and Spray Tans podcast earlier this month, and she has “no regrets” about admitting she was nearly tempted to have an affair during their Mirrorball Trophy-winning 2008 partnership.

“I was speaking about the intimacy between celebrities and pros on the show,” she says. “It's almost, I would say, required, if you want the audience to respond to you. And it's so vulnerable, it's very romantic. I really felt like Derek and I were telling a love story on the dance floor.”

She clarifies, though, that she and Hough, now 38, had “boundaries.”

“I was married at the time and my husband sat in the audience every single show,” she says of her ex-husband David Charvet, from whom she split in 2018. “There was nothing funny going on — just to be clear — but I understand how that happens and why.”

“I just think it's a relationship — whether it's a friendship or a love affair or whatever happens — it's an experience that really connects you,” she adds.

Related: Brooke Burke Recalls 'Intimate Experience' on DWTS as She Clarifies Derek Hough Affair Comments (Exclusive)

On Cheryl’s podcast, Brooke said of her time with the pro dancer, “Had I not been married ... I would have actually hoped we would have had a love affair.”

In reality, it was no more than a “crush,” she tells PEOPLE.

“It's the confusion between sexual and sensual, right, like we're grown ups. You can have an extremely sensual experience, a passionate experience — with boundaries — that I think is very healthy,” she says, expanding on her initial comments. “I think it's a conversation that should be had. I think it's very human. I think it’s very powerful. And I think that's the beauty of the show.”

Brooke, who returned to host DWTS for seven seasons after winning the show, continues, “It's very intimate. It's a connection of emotions that most people may not even experience in their partnership.” 

Related: Cheryl Burke Says She 'Wasn’t Invited' to Return for Len Goodman's Tribute on Dancing with the Stars

As she reflects back on her time on the hit ABC show, she says it was “thrilling” to experience all of the “high highs” and “low lows” that came along with it.

“The time commitment is amazing, and you know, back in the day, it was three months, so you're eating together, you’re training together, you’re choreographing together, you're thinking about it in your sleep, you're competing. It's a rainbow of emotions that I've never experienced before.”

Brooke, who is the new host of The CW’s Penn & Teller: Fool Us, goes as far as to say that the connection between the pro and their partner is not only something that occurs naturally over the course of the show — it’s almost a requirement in order to succeed in the competition.

“I think anybody that says they don't have an intimate connection is, you know, probably not facing the reality of that show — or maybe they didn't win.”

She adds, “You're sort of in it together out there. Like, it was Derek and I out there alone, and I think that connects you. I think that's extremely intimate. And so that's what I was talking about.”

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Of her relationship now with Hough — who stepped in as judge during the 2020 season has remained on the judging panel since — she says, “He’s like a little brother.”

Brooke notes that she did not reach out to the dancer after her appearance on the podcast, because “it’s a non-issue.”

“It was just a connection that I'll never forget,” she says. 

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