From Jesse Metcalfe and Sharna Burgess to Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy and many many more!
Dancing With The Stars may seem like all fun and games on show night, but behind the scenes, there can be a lot of drama. It’s no simple task to turn celebrity contestants into expert dancers in just a matter of weeks and rehearsals are often pretty intense. With tensions already high, it gets even worse when partners don’t get along.
Throughout the show’s 32 seasons, there have been quite a few DWTS partners that just didn’t work well together. Whether it was due to their different communication styles or some uncomfortable moments, these celebs and their professional partners constantly clashed and didn’t make a good team.
Find out what happened between these dance partners…
1. Jesse Metcalfe & Sharna Burgess
Sharna Burgess recently revealed that she had two celebrity partners that made her “very, very uncomfortable.” While she didn’t name any names, she said one partner continually flirted with her and when she shut him down, he became frustrated. She then referenced a second partner that she later heavily implied was Jesse Metcalfe.
“I had a situation with a partner where it got to the point where we couldn’t be alone in a room without people watching. That was a difficult situation for me,” she said on the Sex, Lies & Spray Tans podcast. “I went through the proper channels and unfortunately I wasn’t able to record everything, but I was able to record some things and I did do the proper things and there were reports made and I was taken care of.”
In response, a rep for Jesse shut down the allegations, saying, “If she is referring to a time where our client Jesse Metcalfe worked with Ms. Burgess four years ago, the only recollection was that they didn’t get along. Vague insinuations are not only reckless but also irrelevant.”
2. Hannah Brown & Alan Bersten
When former Bachelorette star Hannah Brown was paired up with Alan Bersten, fans thought their chemistry was so strong that they were actually dating. It turns out that behind the scenes, the partners didn’t mesh well at all. Hannah says the pair had “totally different” communication styles and Alan pushed her “too far in rehearsals” — some days leaving her in tears.
“Alan kept saying, ‘You have to trust me if we’re going to do this.’ But trust was the last thing I was prepared to give a man I’d just met. As a dance partner, standing strong, I came to trust Alan more and more every week. I think that showed in our performances. Our chemistry on the stage led to the press speculating that we had something more going on between us, but we didn’t. Off the dance floor, we were not compatible people,” Hannah wrote in her book, God Bless This Mess.
She continued, “It’s intense work between partners who’ve only just met. But Alan and I had the most volatile relationship of the season, by far. It was either we acted like best friends and true partners, or we couldn’t stand each other. He’d push me too far in rehearsals, and I’d say, ‘Get out of my face. I’m not doing this,’ and he’d say, ‘You’re lazy! You’re not trying!'”
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3. Kirstie Alley & Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Kirstie Alley and Maksim Chmerkovskiy were close while they were competing on DWTS but after filming wrapped, their friendship fell apart. According to Maksim, he believes it’s because he became friendly with Leah Remini, who has frequently spoken out against the Church of Scientology — of which Kristie was a member before her passing.
“I thought we had a great relationship and if it was something else or not, I don’t know. But I got a message that now that I’m associating with other people that she can’t be associated with, I am no longer to be spoken with, and sorry, but that is what it is,” Maksim said on Watch What Happens Live.
Years later, the duo clashed again when Maksim implored Kristie to speak out against the war in Ukraine. Instead, Kristie slammed Maksim and threatened to reveal secrets about him. After her passing in 2022, Maksim called their relationship a “wild roller coaster.”
4. Kate Gosselin & Tony Dovolani
Tony Dovolani almost quit DWTS when he was paired up with Kate Gosselin. During one heated moment in rehearsals, Kate was shown yelling that Tony was “not taking into consideration how I learn.” At that moment, Tony took off his mic pack and replied “I’m done, I’m done today. I quit!”
After filming wrapped, Tony joked that “a lot of therapy was involved” after working with Kate — a jab that she did not take lightly. In a now-deleted blog post for Coupon Cabin, Kate wrote that she knew she was not the best dancer but was “surprised” by Tony’s comments.
“I think it is a shame that Tony has been left only with a negative impression of our time together, especially after we spent SO many hours, days, nights and weeks working hard together doing our best in the competition,” Kate wrote.
She later added, “Despite the many obstacles I faced at that time, I was left with a very positive impression of the entire experience! I made many lifelong friends, have tons of great memories, and learned a lot about myself, so I don’t regret a single moment! I wish nothing but the best in future seasons for Tony and his prospective dance partners.”
Sharna Burgess Says Two DWTS Partners Made Her Feel 'Very, Very Uncomfortable'
5. Ian Ziering & Cheryl Burke
In 2016, Cheryl Burke was asked about her least favorite dance partner to which she replied Ian Ziering. She even went as far as to say that she wanted to “slit” her wrists after working with him, a comment that she later regretted.
“I’ve always lived by the rule that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Recently and regrettably, I broke that rule,” Cheryl wrote on X. “In the heat of an interview conversation, I used a phrase that seemingly makes light of suicide and I deeply regret it.”
6. Hope Solo & Maksim Chmerkovskiy
Hope Solo and Maksim Chmerkovskiy had a tumultuous time working together on DWTS. In her autobiography, Solo: A Memoir of Hope, Hope alleged that Maksim had been very aggressive with her during rehearsals.
“He was often nasty, swearing at me and being harshly critical. He manhandled me in rehearsals from the start, pushing me, whacking my stomach, bending my arms roughly. One day, Maks was trying to put me in a certain position and hit my stomach so hard with his open palm that I had a red handprint there for the rest of the day,” Hope wrote in her book.
Maksim later shared his own thoughts about Hope, calling her a “s—-y person.”
“People can be bad or good or whatever. You can have a s—-y life growing up. You can have a tough upbringing. You can have history. You can have whatever. But, if you are just a bad person, you know what I mean? There’s no excuse for that,” he said on the Allegedly with Theo Von & Matthew Cole Weiss podcast.
7. Mischa Barton & Artem Chigvintsev
Mischa Barton didn’t enjoy her time on DWTS and things were intense with her partner Artem Chigvintsev during the three weeks she was on the show. Looking back, Mischa said nothing went according to plan.
“Ugh, I had no idea it would be so bad. I got told off by my dancer. I was supposed to control the costumes, I was told that I could do the design aspect of it, that’s kind of the reason why I agreed to do it,” she told The Ringer.
She continued, “That didn’t happen. It wasn’t collaborative like a choreographer on a film set … I was so confused by it. It was like The Hunger Games. It was all a popularity contest. It was awful. I was so glad to get kicked off.”
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