DWTS Alum Drags Maks Chmerkovskiy in Candid Interview: ‘He Didn’t Help Me at All’

Heavy/Getty Gilles Marini criticizes Maks Chmerkovskiy.

Season 8 “Dancing With the Stars” alum Gilles Marini spoke to Cheryl Burke about his time on the show. On the April 15 episode of the “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans” podcast, Marini said that the guys on the show — especially Maksim Chmerkovskiy — weren’t very helpful.

“Maks didn’t help me at all. Even worse, you can hear this, Maks was like super hard with me on the Gangnam Style because he was tired. Are you kidding me?” Marini recalled.

“And every time I asked him something … Every time I asked, I want to do something. He said, ‘Oh, you shut up. You don’t know.’ I’m like, ‘OK, I don’t know.’ … So what am I going to say? I quit?” he added.

Marini competed on season 8 alongside Burke and returned for the All-Stars season during which he danced with Peta Murgatroyd — who was dating Chmerkovskiy at the time.

Here’s what you need to know:

Gilles Marini Said Most of the Male Pros on DWTS Didn’t Help Him on the Show

One of the things that Marini remembers about being on “Dancing With the Stars” is the lack of help he received from the male pros in general.

“Every time I asked any guy something, they were looking at me. You know, you you shut up. You’re great. They never try to help me,” he told Burke on her podcast.

There was one person, however, who did help Marini improve, and that was Jonathan Roberts.

Chmerkovskiy left DWTS after season 25 with just one Mirrorball Trophy win. In an exclusive interview with Heavy in late 2023, he said that he’d never return to the show.

“This is a great show, great group of people. You know, look. If there’s a Mount Rushmore of that thing, ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ I’m probably a couple of spots on it. But I feel like we’ve written a book on how to do ‘Dancing With the Stars’ back in the day. And, you know, I’m that fan. I’m a fan of the original version. The way it was. The way everybody fell in love with the show,” Chmerkovskiy told Heavy, adding, “I don’t have plans to be part of the show.”

Maks Chmerkovskiy Acknowledges He Had a Reputation on DWTS

Chmerkovskiy joined the cast of “So You Think You Can Dance” as a judge on season 18. In an interview with Variety ahead of the premiere, he talked about what fans can expect to see from him.

“You’re going to have to evaluate me and the job that I’m doing. I never go in thinking I’m the tough judge, so now I’m going to be tough,” he told the outlet. He then went on to address how people perceived him on DWTS.

“I think I’m a soft-ass bunny sweetheart, white and fluffy. I think you all got confused. You all misinterpret me. Everybody misunderstands me. I lead with rainbows and unicorns and butterflies. And so somehow I’m the ‘bad boy of ballroom.’ I didn’t even know what that meant most of the time. I tried to be me and then you guys would be like, ‘Maks was an [expletive],'” he added.

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