Getty Maks Chmerkovskiy
“Dancing With the Stars” season 14 contestant Sherri Shepherd revealed that her partner’s brother, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, helped her through a hard time in her life when she was going through a divorce.
“Maksim is so sweet and I want to give him a shout out because when I was going through my second divorce, I was at the lowest point in my life,” Shepherd shared during the Thursday, March 2, 2023, episode of her talk show “Sherri.” She was sharing a video of Maksim and his family dancing with her audience at the time. “I was having a hard time financially. It was just court stuff. And Maksim called me and invited me to his dance studio, Come Dance with Me, to just dance and take classes.”
Shepherd was partnered with Val Chmerkovskiy during her time on the show in 2012.
She added, “I said to him, I said, ‘Maksim, I can’t afford it right now.’ And Maksim said to me, he said, ‘You are always family.’ And he gave me all my dance classes for free for almost a year and I want to thank Maksim.”
She also called him an “all-around good guy.”
Sherri Shepherd Got Divorced in 2014
Shepherd was married during her time competing on “Dancing With the Stars.” The TV star married Lamar Sally in 2011 and filed for legal separation on May 2, 2014, according to People.
The talk-show host has two children. Her first, Jeffrey, was born in April 2005 to Shepherd and her first husband, Jeff Tarpley, from whom she split in 2009. Her second son was welcomed via surrogate in August 2014. Both children have been the subject of custody cases, according to People.
“Sherri” took the place of “The Wendy Williams Show” after Williams’ show was canceled in 2022. Shepherd’s talk show has since been greenlit for two more seasons and will run through at least 2025. The show airs each weekday in national syndication.
Maks & His Wife Peta Murgatroyd Have Shared Multiple Dance Videos
Maks and his wife, Peta Murgatroyd, have been active on social media in February and March 2023, sharing multiple dancing videos and even inviting their son, Shai, to join in.
“Here we have @petamurgatroyd living her best gangsta life while @maksimc is wearing his favorite @disney tee shirt #socute,” they wrote on Instagram on February 23, 2023 alongside a video of them dancing together.
The couple is expecting their second child, they revealed in January 2023 after a round of failed IVF and years of struggles with infertility.
“It brings me immense joy to finally announce that @maksimc and I are expecting our Chmerkovskiy #2,” Murgatroyd wrote on Instagram at the time. “After 2 years of constant struggle and heartache, 3 miscarriages and a failed embryo transfer… we have a healthy bun in the oven :)) It was a shock to all of us and we found out right before I was going in for my second round of IVF.”
She added, “This news has brought extraordinary bliss to our family and we have so much to be grateful for… coming June 2023.”
“Dancing With the Stars” is set to return in the fall of 2023 on Disney+.