Whether it’s due to a conflict in personality or different expectations of appearing on the reality show, not all the couples on Dancing With The Stars have gone smoothly. It’s a tense environment with competitive dancers and small things can become heightened. Oftentimes, the celebrities don’t know how to deal with the dancing pros who desperately want to win the Mirrorball Trophy.
These controversial pairings had drama on and off the dance floor, with some feuds and controversy lasting for years. Even when the cameras stopped rolling, these professional dancers and their celebs couldn’t stop talking about their dislike for each other and the show.
Hope Solo And Maksim Chmerkovskiy
ScreenRant shared that Hope Solo and Maksim Chmerkovskiy are among the most controversial DWTS pairings in years. Their feud continued long after they left the dance floor in 2011, with Hope even writing how much she disliked Maksim in her autobiography, Solo: A Memoir of Hope.
- In Solo: A Memoir of Hope, the US Olympic goalkeeper accused her former dance partner of slapping her “across the face. Hard.”
In the “Dancing” chapter of her book, she claimed Maksim “was extremely apologetic” but that the blow was powerful enough that her ears rang afterward.
He manhandled me in rehearsals from the start, pushing me, whacking my stomach, bending my arms roughly.
Hope wrote, “I thought that was just how it went – how dancers worked with each other. But it kept getting worse. One day, Maks [sic] 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.”
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According to Hope, ABC’s cameras filmed the incident, but the footage mysteriously disappeared. While the network offered to remove the Ukrainian dancer from the show, Hope declined. The dancer has always denied any accusations of physical abuse, according to TMZ.
At the time, the other professional dancers were less than impressed with Maksim’s training style. “That’s stuff you shouldn’t be doing,” said Tristan McManus, who was paired with Nancy Grace that season. “No matter whether you’ve been dancing for however long or just new to dancing, that shouldn’t be happening,” Entertainment Weekly reported.
While the couple placed fourth in the competition, their feud carried on for years after being eliminated. “She’s just a s****y person,” Maks explained in 2015, according to E! News.
People can be bad or good or whatever. You can have a s***** 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.
On the Sept. 25, 2023, episode of Cheryl Burke’s Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast, he called Hope Solo the partner he had the “worst chemistry” and admitted to fighting with her.
Other Controversies Involving Maksim Chmerkovskiy
- According to The New York Post, Bristol Palin claimed Maksim “hated” her “so much” when she competed on Season 11 in 2010.
- Kirstie Alley and Maksim competed together twice and were originally good friends but her connection to Scientology and personal beliefs caused friction.
- Vaness Lachey and Maksim clashed so hard that he skipped a week in the 25th season.
Kate Gosselin And Tony Dovolani
Reality TV star, Kate Gosselin, was controversial when she appeared on the show during Season 10 in 2010. She spent most of her time on DWTS complaining about learning dances.
The mother of eight’s whining got so out of hand that her pro, Tony Dovolani, threatened to quit. “You’re not taking into consideration how I learn!” she said during rehearsal. Tony took off his mic pack and replied: “I’m done, I’m done today. I quit!” US Weekly shared that he ultimately came back the same day and apologized to production for his behavior.
Later, he admitted that he felt like Kate had “done the show for the wrong reasons,” and that she “didn’t realize where she was at.” Appearing on the Hollywood Life’spodcast, he revealed he felt like he couldn’t teach Kate, which led to him walking out of rehearsal.
“When I decided to quit nothing major happened, it was just a build-up of things where I just said that I didn’t sign up for this,” the pro said.
Some of these celebrities, or reality celebrities, I should say, they sometimes … they have an idea of what they think they are and who they are, and they didn’t realize that I wasn’t there to deal with them.
Tony concluded, “I was there to teach them how to dance. So, when it becomes about other than teaching them how to dance, I want no part of it.”
He was one of the pros who didn’t complain about his celebrity, so production was shocked when he walked out of rehearsal one day. He said the executive producer called him and told him they would help him get a better partner the following year.
David Hasselhoff And Kym Johnson
David Hasselhoff and Kym Johnson were the first couple to be voted off Season 11 of Dancing With The Stars. It was very apparent that David did not enjoy his time on the dance competition.
An insider source described the various problems that the whole production, not just his dance partner Kym, disliked working with the former Baywatch star.
According to the insider via Today, “He was a mess, his people would call staffers 20 times a day, changing rehearsal times, canceling shoots and even suggesting things like camera angles and poses.”
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They added that Kym was quite disappointed in how it ended up going. “At first, Kym thought getting Hoff as a partner was quite a coup, but then she quickly realized it was a mistake.”
Ian Ziering And Cheryl Burke
Long-time Dancing With the Stars pro Cheryl Burke had nothing nice to say about her 90210 partner, Ian Ziering. Although she later apologized for her harsh words, she said during a podcast appearance that Ziering was her “least favorite” partner and she “would rather slit my wrists” than dance with him again, as reported by People.
- Cheryl and Ian were paired on Season 4 of DWTS back in 2007, where they made it to the final four before being eliminated.
- She would mock the pronunciation of Ian’s surname and make hurtful remarks about working with him.
She admitted on an episode of her Pretty Messed Up podcast that she was “Just talking trying to get a reaction and putting him as my punching bag really.” She added that she “took it to that next level of just nastiness and I was so nasty.”
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Speaking to The New York Post in 2023, Burke said she regretted her comments about the actor and did reach out to apologize to him.
“I actually apologized to him. I sent an email like a couple of years ago when I did a YouTube. I think it was during like right after the pandemic or toward the end of it. And I did. I just wanted to publicly apologize. But before I publicly apologized, I wanted to just to do it personally.”
Melora Hardin And Artem Chigvintsev
Artem Chigvintsev is one of the most controversial dancers in DWTS history, mainly due to his argumentative nature and his recent arrest involving his estranged wife Nikki Garcia. This fiery nature of Artem’s character came to light when he was partnered with The Office actress, Melora Hardin.
Audiences saw their difficult partnership during an intense rehearsal leading up to Janet Jackson Night, during which their video team showed a tense argument when practicing the paso doble.
“I think it’s really important for people to see that real relationships require negotiating and compromise and forgiveness, and sometimes there’s tension,” Melora told Page Six.
- Kaitlyn Bristowe, who danced with Artem the season prior, admitted she felt triggered watching the rehearsal footage. “I mean, you really get into a relationship with people and you butt heads sometimes.”
- Actress, Mischa Barton also complained about her time on the reality show, saying she felt like she was being “told off,” by her pro, Artem.
Stream every season of
Dancing With the Stars
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Dancing with the Stars is a popular dancing competition reality TV show airing on ABC and Disney+. The series features various celebrities who pair with professional dancers to compete in front of a panel of judges. The US version of the UK TV show Strictly Come Dancing premiered in 2005 and was originally hosted by Tom Bergeron for its first 28 seasons.
- Release Date
- June 1, 2005
- Main Genre
- Reality
- Cast
- Carrie Ann Inaba , Bruno Tonioli , Len Goodman , Tom Bergeron , Cheryl Burke , Tony Dovolani , Derek Hough , Mark Ballas , Karina Smirnoff , Maksim Chmerkovskiy , Kym Johnson , Sasha Farber , Val Chmerkovskiy , Emma Slater , Sharna Burgess
