ABC
Fans of Dancing With the Stars were surprised on Wednesday when a season 29 contestant and a DWTS pro went “Instagram official” with their new relationship.
Professional dancer Keo Motsepe shared a sweet selfie on Wednesday night with his over 164,000 Instagram followers. In the photo, he is kissing the cheek of none other than Selling Sunset star Chrishell Stause! In the caption, he included a red heart emoji. Stause shared a heart emoji of her own in the comments section in response and shared the same photo in her Instagram stories.
Although Motsepe and Stause met during season 29 of Dancing With the Stars, they were not paired up for the competition. Stause’s partner was Gleb Savchenko, and Motsepe was teamed up with actress Ann Keche. Stause’s partner was quick to show his support for the budding relationship; in the comments section of Motsepe’s post, he shared a series of heart emojis, adding, “Love you guys!!!”
Other DWTS castmates showed love, too, including Emma Slater, Alan Bersten, Pasha Pashkov, Jeannie Mai, and season 29 winner Kaitlyn Bristowe. Nev Schulmann, the season 29 runner-up, wrote, “THIS. IS. SO. CUTE.”
The new couple continued to flaunt their budding relationship in their Instagram stories. Stause teased her followers with a video of her and Motsepe working out side-by-side, masked in a gym together. In his stories, Motsepe shared a candid video of Stause sitting next to him, in which he says “Hi Baby!” Accompanying the video, he wrote, “I will always make you smile.”
Stause Was Accused of Having an Affair With Savchenko
The news of Stause and Motsepe dating comes after previous allegations that linked her to her Dancing With the Stars partner Gleb Savchenko. After Savchenko and his wife Elena Samodanova announced that they were separating after 14 years of marriage, people were quick to speculate if his time spent practicing with Stause for the competition had evolved into something more and had a role to play in that split. The rumors were only exacerbated by Samodanova’s claims that their split was influenced by Savchenko’s past infidelity.
Stause and Savchenko were quick to shoot down any rumors that they had an affair. Savchenko told E! News, “While I will continue to respect the privacy of my family, I will not stand by and allow false accusations and internet rumors go unaddressed. My relationship with Chrishell was and remains strictly platonic. Our friendship during our season on DWTS was not the reason for our split. Elena and I have had longstanding issues in our marriage. This has been an ongoing situation between Elena and I paired with poor timing.”
Stause told E! News, “I feel like it really is annoying because it’s one of those things where, you know, unfortunately, the timing of what he’s going through personally, people want to make it into something it’s not. So we’re just friends.” Continuing, she added, “I get it. I’ve been on soaps. You have to have that kind of stuff sometimes when you’re on the dance floor. People misinterpret that.”
Stause’s Ex-Husband Justin Hartley Filed for Divorce in November 2019
Stause married This Is Us star Justin Hartley in 2017; in 2019, Hartley filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences. Of the unexpected split, and the way it played out on her show Selling Sunset, Stause told ET, “I obviously really truly love him and it’s unfortunate the way that everything happened and the timing of everything, because I still had a month to go of shooting the show when this all went down. Hopefully we can get to a place where one day we will look back at this and laugh, I don’t know… hopefully. It’s very unfortunate and relationships are hard.”
In September, Stause admitted to Entertainment Tonight that she was ready to get back out there following her divorce and that she had some potential suitors showing interest in her Instagram DMs. She said, “I’m completely single and because of COVID, I haven’t done much mingling. I’m excited to mingle.”
It’s unclear when Stause and Motsepe started dating, especially since the DWTS cast was isolated from one another while competing to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on-set. It’s likely that they admired each other from afar while quarantining, and then connected in-person after Stause was eliminated since Motsepe was already out of the competition at that point.
READ NEXT: DWTS 2020 Winner: Who Won Dancing With the Stars Season 29?