During a 2016 appearance on the “Allegedly” podcast, longtime “Dancing with the Stars” pro Cheryl Burke was asked to single out her least-favorite celebrity partner. She named “Sharknado” star Ian Ziering, with whom she was paired during the show’s fourth season in 2007.
“The fact that his name’s not ee-an, and it’s eye-an makes me wanna throw up,” Burke declared on the podcast (via TMZ). Discussing Ziering’s actorly intensity, Burke admitted that he wore on her. “Think of spending time with that for, like, eight to 10 hours a day, seven days a week for three months,” she added. Asked if that made her want to quit the show, she quipped, “No, but it made me want to slit my wrists … I was, like, crying to the executives. I was, like, ‘Is there any way to please to just eliminate us?'”
Read Related Also: Yes, MSM Is the 'Enemy of the People'
Burke’s comments were hit with backlash, and she tweeted an apology — not to Ziering, but to anyone she’d offended by making light of suicide. In 2021, Burke admitted during an episode of her “Pretty Messed Up” podcast that she’d come to regret her words. “I was completely out of line,” she said, publicly apologizing to Ziering. “I just took it to that next level of just nastiness.” In 2023, Burke revealed she sent Ziering a personal apology via email, and that the hatchet had been buried.
