From enemies to nearly lovers — things could’ve gotten spicy between Brooke Burke and Derek Hough when they were partnered together on “Dancing with the Stars.”
Brooke, 52, revealed Monday on former “DWTS” pro Cheryl Burke’s “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans” podcast that she and Hough, 38, originally weren’t “gelling” before they won the Mirrorball Trophy in 2008, but ended up seeking couples therapy arranged by producers.
But in the end, the TV personality and former “DWTS” host admitted that she ended up “crushing on Derek.”
“Had I not been married [to actor David Charvet] … I would have actually hoped we would have had a love affair,” Brooke gushed to Cheryl.
“I would have had an affair with him. But listen, let me tell you why: You are intertwined with someone’s body when you’re not a dancer. There is no way that I have ever been so connected — besides with a lover or a husband — than I was with Derek. And it’s every single day.”
The Post has contacted reps for Brooke and Hough for comment.
Brooke continued: “So for three months, you are in someone’s arms. Why do you think people fall in love? You smell them, you feel them, you’re breathing with them. It can be more intimate than making love in a bedroom — you’re making love on a dance floor, you feel more connected.”
“If you have energy, you’re doing this dance and you’re in the rhythm, and then there’s trust, then you’re sharing fear, you’re doing something you’ve never done. How many times do you go through an experience with someone where they’re all you’ve got?” she asked.
Brooke revealed to Burke that she’d only ever “had one experience with one person like that [outside the ballroom].
“Life-changing,” she called it.
Brooke and Charvet divorced in 2020.
Brooke also addressed being ousted as “DWTS” host alongside Tom Bergeron, 68, in 2014.
“I wasn’t given a reason. I think that’s the frustrating part,” Brooke told Cheryl about her sudden departure. “It would have been one thing if I sucked at the job, or I had an issue or I had a falling out, or I was a diva, or really complicated to work with, or the audience just straight up didn’t like me. There wasn’t really a reason.”
She continued: “What I would have liked would have been to have a very adult, respectful conversation that would have gone something like ‘we’re not going to renew your contract and we’re making some changes. We’re looking at some new people, and we just want to give you a heads-up, and if you’d like to support that publicly, great?’”
“Should we make an announcement together? Great,” Burke dreamed about how the conversation could’ve gone.
“I honestly would have accepted that, respected it and been all on-board,” she claimed.
Despite the drama, Burke was thankful for the experience.
“One of the greatest feelings was winning — but it was also completing an experience and giving it my all, everything that I had. And that I was really proud of. Even if I didn’t win, I was really proud of … devoting three months, seven days a week. So I left [that competition] going, ‘I can do anything!’”
She added: “I’m so lucky that I was able to go the distance, and it wasn’t about the winning. I’m lucky that I was able to face challenges and show up on the other side of them and learn, learn how to communicate, learn how to show up for a partner, learn how to show up for myself, learn how to have faith in my own body and movement, learn how to quiet down the noise around me and be in a moment that scared the s— out of me.”
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