Celebs Who Went Through Breakups After Joining Dancing With The Stars

When celebrities in relationships join the cast of "Dancing with the Stars," they find themselves in an awkward situation. Contestants spend weeks twirling in the arms of attractive professional dancers, and it's not always easy for the stars' romantic partners to watch them feign a love connection with someone else. Former "DWTS" pro Cheryl Burke believes that the jealousy bred by these circumstances has ended some relationships. "We call this the 'Dancing with the Stars' curse," she told Fox News.

For Season 7 champ Brooke Burke, the high amount of required physical contact with her pro partner blurred the lines between reality and the roles they were playing, which resulted in her catching feelings for Derek Hough. At the time, she was dating her longtime partner David Charvet. "Had I not been married ... I actually hoped we would have had a love affair," Brooke confessed on Cheryl's "Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans" podcast. Developing crushes on pros isn't the only problem celebs face. "The Bachelor" star Sean Lowe told Business Insider that joining the show soon after he popped the question to Catherine Lowe (née Giudici) wasn't great for their relationship because it prevented them from spending enough time together. "If I could rewind and do it over again, I would not have done that," he said.

Burke and Charvet remained together for a decade after she competed on the show, and the Lowes are still happily married. However, other celebrities' relationships didn't last long after they joined "DWTS."

When Nikki Bella joined the cast of Season 25 of "Dancing with the Stars" in 2017, the "Total Bellas" star was one-half of professional wrestling's biggest power couple. Bella's fiancé at the time, fellow WWE personality John Cena, often showed up in the ballroom to support her. However, after she performed a sexy Viennese waltz with Artem Chigvintsev that was inspired by the movie "Fifty Shades of Grey," Cena pretended like he was about to punch her pro partner. 

Bella spoke about Cena regularly during her time on the show, even admitting that she had Chigvintsev wear a mask with her fiancé's face on it to make her feel more comfortable while they were rehearsing their samba. She also told E! News that she wanted Chigvintsev to choreograph her wedding dance with Cena.

But in July 2018 — nine months after Bella was eliminated from "DWTS" — she revealed that there would be no wedding. "After much time and soul-searching alone and together, we have decided to officially part ways," she told People. By the following January, Us Weekly was reporting that Bella was dating Chigvintsev. Although Bella would later marry her former "DWTS" partner, the ballroom apparently wasn't to blame for her breakup with Cena. In her book "Incomparable," Bella explains that Cena never wanted children, whereas she couldn't suppress her yearning to start a family. Her dream came true in July 2020 when she and Chigvintsev welcomed their son, Matteo.

In 2010, "The Bachelor" star Jake Pavelka gave Vienna Girardi his final rose. Immediately after Girardi got her engagement ring, Pavelka set his sights on procuring his own sparkly reality show prize: the Mirrorball Trophy. The pilot was paired with Chelsie Hightower for Season 10 of "Dancing with the Stars," and a week before their April 2010 elimination, Girardi praised their "Risky Business"-inspired performance. "I think every woman in the crowd was hootin' and hollerin' out there, and I'm like, 'Mmm hmm. He's mine,'" she told Pacific Rim Video. But two months after Pavelka stripped down to his undies, he was no longer hers.

The exes' breakup was so brutal that it got its own special segment during a July 2010 episode of "The Bachelorette." Girardi complained that Pavelka only acted like they were in a relationship if cameras were present, and when he joined "DWTS" she felt even more ignored and neglected. "He never acknowledged me. We were never together, ever, throughout the whole thing," she said (via People). "I was excited to spend time with him on the show." While she called her ex a "fame whore," Pavelka claimed it was Girardi who craved the spotlight. "She was excited because I put her on TV," he said. 

In 2019, Girardi told ET she'd turned down an invite to join the "Bachelor in Paradise" cast — but what we'd really like to see is some ballroom redemption for the ex-villain.

Whitney Bischoff was ready to discover if farm living was the life for her after saying yes to Chris Soules on "The Bachelor" in 2015, but she didn't get a happy ending with Prince Farming. Soules was one of the Bachelor Nation stars that ABC sent straight on to the "Dancing with the Stars" ballroom after his proposal, and he was partnered with Witney Carson for the series' 20th season. Two months after the show's March 2015 premiere, Soules and Bischoff's relationship drama was starting to overshadow his performances.

Bischoff's absence at a May 2015 taping of "DWTS" coupled with her lack of a presence on Soules' social media pages sparked speculation that the couple had called it quits. However, Soules told reporters (via Fox News), "We're together and we're in love ... We're making the best of a really cool situation that we're both a part of that's not going to last much longer." He was right about that, as their breakup announcement came a little over three weeks later. By then, Soules had been eliminated from "DWTS."

One source told Radar that Soules had discovered that fame was his real true love, while another told OK! that his friendship with his "DWTS" partner had put a strain on his relationship with Bischoff. However, during a Facebook Live with ET, Soules offered a different explanation for the split, saying, "Once we both knew that it wasn't right, it wasn't right."

Quite a few celebrities have fallen in love on "Dancing with the Stars," but it's far rarer for the show's pros to compete alongside a star they're already dating. Julianne Hough joined this exclusive club in 2009 when she was partnered with country singer Chuck Wicks. The prior year, Hough had been busy launching her own country music career. She met Wicks when she was on tour with Wicks, Jewel, and "We Danced" singer Brad Paisley. "My famous pick-up line was, 'The catering is great', and then I walked away I was so nervous," Wicks recalled to People.

After the couple's April 2009 "DWTS" elimination, Wicks told OK!, "The fact that our relationship was always up through all of that was a true testament to who we are as a couple." However, their relationship wouldn't survive the year. "We're both just really, really busy with our careers," Hough told People after the pair called time on their romance that November. 

She insisted that they were still friends and were even working on music together, describing their split as "a little break." But from the sounds of it, Wicks had no interest in rekindling their flame. In a 2020 interview with People, he revealed that their cordial public behavior belied how bitter their breakup really was. "It wasn't fine," he said. "S*** hit the fan. I'm not going to throw anybody under the bus but ... It wasn't my fault."

Robert Herjavec and Kym Johnson's ballroom romance has a happy ending. In 2015, "Dancing with the Stars" fans learned that the "Shark Tank" investor and the Aussie dancer would be partners for Season 20 of the show. Their chemistry was undeniable, so it didn't come as much of a shocker when they were photographed getting all up in each other's personal space away from the dance floor. The pair tied the knot in July 2016 and welcomed twins two years later, so theirs is definitely one of the most fruitful "DWTS" partnerships. However, Herjavec's love life was a mess when he signed on for the show.

The entrepreneur was going through a divorce from Diane Plese at the time; the cause of their split was Herjavec's affair with an actor named Danielle Vasinova. People reported that Herjavec was still seeing Vasinova in February 2015 — the same month the "DWTS" cast was announced. This detail was divulged when he filed a lawsuit against his former mistress in 2017. In his complaint, he accused Vasinova of trying to extort him with allegations of rape, and he suggested that her threat was a way of seeking "revenge" after he moved on with Johnson.

While Herjavec didn't win the Mirrorball Trophy, he did win his lawsuit – and he waltzed away with a new shot at lasting love. "It's remarkable when you get a second chance at happiness," he marveled to TV Insider.

In 2018, model Alexis Ren and professional dancer Alex Bersten had viewers wondering whether the spark they were seeing between the pair was a showmance or a real romance. But according to E! News, Ren was romantically involved with someone else when she joined the Season 27 cast of "Dancing with the Stars." Ren and the unidentified guy reportedly called it quits after she'd been on the show for several weeks. "They were already on the outs," a source said, adding, "There was no cheating." Romper possibly identified Ren's ex as Sky Bear Bobbins, a Hawaii-based owner of a paddleboarding business.

Ren and Bersten confessed their feelings for one another on the show, and they were filmed making out during a romantic horseback ride. Of what it was like being a participant in a reality romance, Ren told ET, "It's really hard, when there's six cameras staring at you, and you're like, 'I'm just going to spill my heart right now.' It's really weird."

Ren and Bersten made it to the finale, where they finished fourth. They broke up the following month, and apparently, their brief relationship didn't end on the best terms. While speaking to Us Weekly about Ren in 2019, Bersten said, "No more showmances for me. I'm done!" 

So wait a minute — was that a confession that their love story was as choreographed as one of Bersten's dance routines?

In 2021, former "Dance Moms" star JoJo Siwa made history on "Dancing with the Stars" by becoming the first contestant to compete with a same-sex partner. Siwa had been dating Kylie Prew for around eight months when she and professional dancer Jenna Johnson embarked on their bid for ballroom glory, and the cute couple was photographed sharing a smooch after one of Siwa's rehearsals in September 2021. 

But that November, Siwa revealed that she and Prew had broken up. "She is literally still my best friend," Siwa said on Paris Hilton's "This is Paris" podcast. "I'm really lucky that I didn't lose her completely because even though relationships end, friendships don't have to end." 

However, one source told The U.S. Sun that friendship played a role in Siwa and Prew's breakup. "They split. Kylie became jealous of the relationship JoJo has fostered with Jenna. JoJo is a mess," said the insider. Siwa didn't let her relationship drama drag her down when she was on the dance floor, and she and Johnson finished in second place during the November 2021 "DWTS" finale. The hairbow mogul and Prew briefly reunited the following year only to go their separate ways again. This time, it was Prew who broke the sad breakup news. "Everything's fine," she said in an Instagram Live. "Not everything has to be messy and gross because it's not, and I just want to clear the air."

Cheryl Burke told Fox News that members of Bachelor Nation are mostly responsible for fueling the idea that a "'Dancing with the Stars' curse" dooms the nascent relationships of some contestants. This is because they seem to be the "DWTS" cast members who are most susceptible to going through a split after joining the show.

In 2022, the curse claimed another victim in "The Bachelorette" star Gabby Windey. She and her fiancé, Erich Schwer, called it quits while she was competing on the show, and choreography was clearly on her mind when she explained what caused their breakup. "We weren't completely in step and in sync with each other on our common goals or just the way we approach life," she said on the show (via E! News). "We weren't each other's best match." She and her pro partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, were the Season 31 runner-ups.

On the "Off the Vine" podcast, Windey denied that she was dating a different "DWTS" pro, Alan Bersten, after they were spotted grabbing dinner (which People dubbed a "cozy first date"), and in 2023, she revealed that she was dating a woman. "I think coming from such a straight, heteronormative world in my thirties, obviously, I have a lot of questions," Windey told People of her relationship with comedian Robby Hoffman. "She's really patient with me, and we just talk about it in a very non-filtered, non-judgmental way." For her, it seems that the "DWTS" curse wound up being a blessing in disguise.