Maks Chmerkovskiy Fires Back at Bold Claims Made by DWTS Alum

Heavy/Getty Beloved ballroom bad boy vet Maks isn't one to shy away from an issue.

Ballroom pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy is firing back at season 11 “Dancing With the Stars” alum Bristol Palin after she said that he “hated” her.

“Maks doesn’t hate anybody. For her to say that would be a mischaracterization of his feelings. I think he and everyone else in America, 14 years ago, thought that he and Brandy were on their way to winning that year, if not coming into the finals. So there was a bit of disappointment when she leapfrogged him into the finals. It’s a competition. He’s very competitive and took it seriously,” Chmerkovskiy’s rep confirmed to Heavy.

Palin’s comments about Chmerkovskiy came during a chat with Cheryl Burke on the August 26 episode of the “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans” podcast.

Palin competed on season 11 alongside Mark Ballas. The pair made it to the semifinals and landed in third place. The “Teen Mom” star was given a shot at redemption when she was brought back for All-Stars in 2012. Once again paired with Ballas, Palin finished in ninth place.

Bristol Palin Said She Felt ‘Tension’ From Maks Chmerkovskiy on Set of ‘Dancing With the Stars’

Palin’s comments came during the “rapid fire” portion of Burke’s popular podcast. Burke asked Palin about the person who would roll their eyes each time she made it through elimination.

“Oh, Maks? He hated me so much,” Palin responded. Although they weren’t partnered on the show, Palin said that she felt “tension from him.”

When Burke asked Palin why Chmerkovskiy didn’t like her, she responded, “I don’t know, probably just because we kept going through. I mean, he was real nice at the beginning, but it was one of those things where like, as we kept going through…”

“I definitely felt the tension from him. I forgot about that. Yeah. Because the further we went along in it, the more it was like, ‘oh, gosh, okay,'” she added.

Chmerkovskiy competed on season 11 alongside Brandy. The two were eliminated one week before Palin and Ballas.

Maks Chmerkovskiy Had a Reputation for Being Strict

Throughout his time on “Dancing With the Stars,” Chmerkovskiy had a reputation of being a very strict dance teacher. This had led to many rumored feuds on the show, including ones with his former partners, Hope Solo and Vanessa Lachey.

After landing a role as a judge on “So You Think You Can Dance” in 2024, Chmerkovskiy addressed his aforementioned reputation.

“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. I think I’m a soft-ass bunny sweetheart, white and fluffy,” he told Variety in an interview published in February 2024.

“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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