Cheryl Burke Says There’s “No Hard Feelings” Between Her And Former ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Partner Ian Ziering Following “Nasty” Feud: “I’ve Grown A Lot”

There are “no hard feelings” between Ian Ziering and his former Dancing with the Stars partner Cheryl Burke. After the pro dancer previously said she’d rather “slit” her wrists than work with him again, she revealed to The New York Post that she has since apologized to the Beverly Hills, 90210 actor via email.

The duo made it fairly far in the dancing competition when they were paired together back in 2007. In fact, they got all the way to the final four before getting eliminated.

However, things got messy when Burke named Ziering as her “least favorite” celebrity dance partner and made the controversial claim that she’d “rather slit my wrists” than dance with him again while appearing on a podcast in 2016.

“I actually apologized to him,” she told NYP while promoting her new podcast Sex, Lies and Spray Tans. “I sent an email like a couple of years ago when I did a YouTube. I think it was right after the pandemic or toward the end of it. And I did.”

She added, “I just wanted to publicly apologize. But before I publicly apologized, I wanted to just do it personally. And he responded. It was short and sweet, but I think there was a lot to discuss.”

According to Burke, who announced last year that she was leaving DWTS after 26 seasons, she’s a “different” person than she was back in Season 4 of the hit show.

“I’ve grown a lot and I totally, you know, I’m taking accountability for my actions,” she said. “And I knew I know it was wrong what I said, and I didn’t need any hard feelings then or now.”

This isn’t the first time Burke has spoken out about the negative comments she made about Ziering, who famously played Steve Sanders through all 10 seasons of 90210. In April 2021, she publicly apologized to the actor on her Pretty Messed Up podcast.

“The one thing I truly regret and want to make amends with is Ian Ziering,” she said. “I was completely out of line a few years ago, and I did a podcast where they were asking me who my favorite partner was and who did I hate the most. And I answered, ‘Ian Ziering,’ and I said something along the lines of ‘I’d rather slit my wrists than dance with Ian Ziering again.'”

She continued, “I truly am so sorry for being so inconsiderate and just talking trying to get a reaction and putting him as my punching bag really. I took it to that next level of nastiness. I was so nasty. And I’m here to publicly apologize to Ian and his family. I lost a lot of respect for myself. It haunts me till this day.”