Cheryl Burke Has ‘No Hard Feelings’ for Former ‘DWTS’ Partner Ian Ziering Despite Public Feud

Cheryl Burke and Ian Ziering have moved on from their public feud years after she referred to him as her “least favorite” Dancing With the Stars partner.

“I sent him an email, like, a couple of years ago when I did a YouTube — I think it was during, like, right after the [coronavirus] pandemic or toward the end of it,” Burke, 39, shared with The New York Post on Wednesday, October 5, asserting there are “no hard feelings” between her and Ziering, 59. “I just wanted to publicly apologize. But before I publicly apologized, I wanted to just to do it personally.”

Burke said that Ziering had a “short and sweet” response to her apology, but she noted there was “a lot to discuss” between them.

Burke and Ziering were partners during DWTS season 4 in 2007 and were eliminated in the semifinals. Nearly a decade later, Burke claimed that working with Ziering “made me want to slit my wrists” — something she would never say now.

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“I’m a different woman than I was back in season 4,” she told The Post on Wednesday. “I’ve grown a lot and I totally, you know, I’m taking accountability for my actions. And I knew — I know it was wrong what I said, and I didn’t need any hard feelings then or now.”

Burke made her comments about Ziering while appearing on the “Allegedly with Theo Von and Matthew Cole Weiss” in 2016.

"I was like, 'Hey, execs' — I was like crying to the executives — 'Is there any way to force us [out], to just like eliminate us?'” she recalled of the partnership. “The fact that his name's not 'EEE-an' and it's 'EYE-an' makes me want to throw up."

Burke received backlash on social media for the “slit my wrists” portion of her comments, with fans accusing her of making light of suicide — which she has since apologized for. Ziering, for his part, never publicly addressed the podcast episode.

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In the years that followed, Burke frequently expressed regret for her past statement.

"I was completely out of line a few years ago, and I did a podcast where they were asking me who my favorite partner was and who did I hate the most,” Burke told Backstreet Boys member AJ McClean, another former DWTS partner, during a 2021 episode of their “Pretty Messed Up” podcast. “I answered Ian Ziering, and I said something along the lines of 'I'd rather slit my wrists than dance with Ian Ziering again.’”

Burke said she “truly” regretted her choice of words and wanted to “make amends” with the Beverly Hills 90210 alum, noting the comment still “haunts” her.

"I truly am so sorry for being so inconsiderate and just talking trying to get a reaction and putting him as my punching bag really,” she concluded. "I took it to that next level of nastiness. I was so nasty. And I'm here to publicly apologize to Ian and his family."