While her relationship with Matthew Lawrence has been over for years, Cheryl Burke is admitting she still sometimes grieves the failed marriage.
The Dancing with the Stars alum, 41, touched on her divorce during the Thursday, October 2 episode of the “I Do, Part 2” podcast.
While discussing celebrity divorces alongside Jen Fessler, Burke admitted her own divorce “tested” her.
However, she pointed out that her marriage breakdown wasn’t the only big change she went through that year – she also exited DWTS after working as a pro dancer on the show for 26 seasons. In addition, she moved out of her home that she had lived in for over a decade.
“It wasn’t just the divorce with my ex. It was the divorce with Dancing with the Stars all in one year, and then leaving my home I lived in for sixteen years and I moved to where I am today,” Burke explained. “So it’s like, it’s just, it was all happening in one year, and those are three big life changes. They say, if you hit five in one year, you’re most likely going to check into the nearest mental institution.”
While Burke insisted that she has no regrets about how her divorce went down with Lawrence, 45, she confessed she still feels grief over it occasionally.
“To say that I haven’t or still sometimes grieve would be a lie too. I think it can be both, you know?” she said. “I know that I needed to cut off basically both divorces in order for me to be able to see what I see in the mirror and actually like the person I see.”
Matthew Lawrence and Cheryl Burke. (Photo by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)
She went on to say while the changes appeared to happen really quickly, they were a long time coming.
“I think that though it happened quickly, this was not just quick decisions. This was stuff lingering inside of me for many, many years,” she explained.
During the podcast episode, Burke confirmed she and the Mrs Doubtfire actor had signed a prenup before tying the knot in 2019 – a topic she’s previously discussed.
Burke shared on the same podcast in October 2024 that she asked Lawrence for a prenup before tying the knot.
“It was an ultimatum. It was a full-on ultimatum,” she said. “It consisted of, like, 70 to 85 pages of lots of words and lots of fine detail and fine print. But something that my attorney suggested was to make sure I hire him an attorney as well. So that was definitely part of the deal.”
The dancer ultimately refused to get married without an agreement in place.
“It raised a lot of concerns, especially on his behalf. But there was really not much to do,” she noted. “Either we do this and we get married or we don’t. It’s pretty black and white.”
Burke and Lawrence were first romantically linked in 2007 before calling it quits a year later. They rekindled the romance in 2017 and went through with their wedding two years later. Burke filed for divorce from Lawrence in 2022. Since their split, Lawrence has moved on with TLC singer, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas.
