DWTS Alum Reveals She Had An ‘Emotional Affair’ With Her Pro Partner

Getty Dancer Gleb Savchenko attends Lionsgate Films' "The Expendables 3" premiere

Lisa Vanderpump is no stranger to the drama of reality TV and how heightened the emotions can be at times. So it’s not a huge surprise that the Vanderpump Rules star recently admitted to having had an “emotional affair” with her professional partner Gleb Savchenko when she competed on Dancing With the Stars.

Here is what Vanderpump had to say about the experience.

Vanderpump Said She and Savchenko Bonded Because It Was So Scary

On an episode of “The Bellas Podcast” with the Bella twins Nikki and Brie, the twins asked Vanderpump, who has been married to Ken Todd since 1982, about her experience on Dancing With the Stars and she said that it was terrifying to be both so intimate with someone other than her husband and to be dancing on live TV. She found herself very much “out of [her] comfort zone.”

“Being married for so long, I’m not really engaging with any physicality apart from your husband, when you’re thrown into Dancing With the Stars and suddenly somebody’s right in your face and you’re wrapping your legs around them and all this kind of thing was so out of my comfort zone. For the first week or two, I was like, this is all a little too personal, up close and personal,” said Vanderpump.

She went on to detail how her partner Savchenko would be making her do backbends and then he would hold her groin against hers and she joked, “I haven’t had this much fun since my honeymoon!” But in all seriousness, she felt like she and Savchenko clung to each other because they were both scared — season 16 was Savchenko’s first season on the show.

“I did become very close to Gleb, I loved him,” said Vanderpump. “I did feel we had a little bit of an emotional affair in terms of having to connect and hold on to each other because it’s so scary and it was his first time on Dancing With the Stars and it was totally out of my comfort zone, so I do think we really held on to each other tightly like that. I adore him, him and his wife, they’re great. I had a great experience with him, I really did.”

The wife she mentioned is Elena Samodanova. Savchenko and Samodanova split in late 2020 and he began dating actress Cassie Scerbo, though they have since decided to take a break.

Vanderpump Also Said ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Was the Hardest Thing She Has Ever Done

Vanderpump said that competing on Dancing With the Stars is no joke — the physical exertion is so crazy she actually passed out once.

“[Dancing With the Stars] was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” said Vanderpump, adding, “It’s very depleting, as well, it’s hard to keep up, it really is just because you’re dancing four or five hours a day … doing that much physical exercise — I was underweight, I was tired, I fainted once.”

But she’s incredibly glad she did it. She said that her friend Lance Bass of NSync gave her some advice, saying that the Dancing WIth the Stars people will “become like your family” and he was right.

“He said they will become like your family because you break down so many barriers when you partner with somebody in something like that. I think that bond stays forever,” said Vanderpump.

Total Bellas wrapped its sixth season at the end of January and has not yet been renewed for a seventh season on E!. Dancing With the Stars returns for season 30 in fall 2021. And Vanderpump recently debuted new show on E! called Overserved with Lisa Vanderpump.

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