Sherri Shepherd said she contacted Val Chmerkovskiy during his one-week suspension from Dancing with the Stars, telling her former partner that people who know him understand his good intentions. The pair competed together on season 14 in 2012.
“I texted him right away,” Shepherd told Us on November 2, after appearing on season 35’s Disney Night. She said she reminded Chmerkovskiy that she believed he had a good heart and added that she was firmly on his side.
The controversy followed a dispute over an illegal lift during Super Bowl Night on October 13. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba criticized Jenna Johnson and her celebrity partner, Harry Shum Jr., for a lift in their samba. Chmerkovskiy later posted a now-deleted social media comment defending his wife, Johnson, that referenced Will Smith’s 2022 Oscars slap of Chris Rock. BBC Studios described the remark as inappropriate, and Chmerkovskiy was suspended for Dedication Night.
Shepherd said she felt people had misunderstood his comment. When she and Chmerkovskiy reunited on Disney Night, she also joked with him about the lift rules, recalling that he had told her lifts were not allowed when they danced together. He replied that he had followed the rule, she said, joking that he had simply grunted a lot while dancing with her.
Chmerkovskiy’s season 35 partner, Jenna Dewan, performed with Alan Bersten during Dedication Night. Before returning to the ballroom, Chmerkovskiy apologized publicly, saying he had made a poor decision by using a meme reference while trying to defend his wife and had not considered what else it might imply.
Chmerkovskiy and Inaba later shared a hug at the end of Horror Movie Night on October 27.
Sources: Us Weekly.