Heavy/ABC Peta Murgatroyd.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy says his wife Peta Murgatroyd wants to return to the “Dancing With the Stars” ballroom the month after she gives birth to their third child.
The DWTS pro dancers are expecting their third child in July 2024. The newborn is due the weeks after the couple’s baby boy, Rio, turns one. The Chmerkovskiys also share a 7-year-old son, Shai Aleksandr.
During a February 28, 2024 appearance on the “Sherri” show, Chmerkovskiy said he blames DWTS for the timing of his wife’s pregnancies. “I blame ‘Dancing,’” he told host Sherri Shepherd. “Peta, with Shai she was back on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ within 2 and a half months. With Rio, pushing two months. Like, pushing two months. With this next one, she wants to be back this fall after.”
“And I’m not even going to tell you when it’s due because it’s ridiculous,” he added. “It’s going to sound crazy. She’s somewhere in July so you know, it’s going to be, it’s going to be like, let’s see what she does now. But somehow by week four, she has an eight-pack.”
Chmerkovskiy raved about his wife competing on DWTS while pregnant and postpartum. In February, he told Us Weekly, “I don’t know how she does any of this, to be honest. …She wakes up morning sickness for [what seems like] the last seems like five years, one pregnancy after another and somehow functions on the highest level. No one really talks about the fact that she was pregnant [during the] last two seasons [of DWTS], back-to-back.”
“Dancing With the Stars” rehearsals typically start in August of each year ahead of the show’s premiere in September.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy said He Was Shocked When Peta Told Him She Was Pregnant Again
In February 2024, Murgatroyd told fans on Instagram she was several months pregnant again after giving birth to Rio in July. She also shared a video of her surprising Maks with the news. “We’re having a baby,” she shared. “This was very unexpected at (4 months postpartum with Rio) but we are sooooo happy and so ready to be a family of 5 soon.”
Chmerkovskiy told Sherri Shepherd he was surprised by his wife’s pregnancy. “I was shocked,” he said. “I was like. Babe, what are you talking about? We just we just literally we have this, I can’t even explain to people you did it how? We didn’t, the mathematics ….”
“It’s not like I did something different,” he joked of the unexpected pregnancy. “I did the same thing for 13 years that we know each other. Really, it’s up to her to control the situation. I’m not aware of her timings and stuff!”
Maksim Chmerkovskiy Said He’d Be Happy to Be a Stay-at-Home Dad
Chmerkovskiy is a very hands-on dad. In 2016, he took paternity leave after the birth of his first son, Shai. At the time, he told People (per Refinery 29) that he was grateful for having the means to take time off from work after growing up “dirt broke.”
“I just started to be able to afford things in 2005 when [Dancing with the Stars] started,” he said. “For me to be able to take time off in this way…[to have] what we have to enjoy and be proud of, that’s anybody’s dream. I’m doing exactly what I set out to do,” he added. “That’s why I worked my butt off.”
He told Shepherd he would be fine with his wife as the breadwinner while he stays home with the kids. “It’s my favorite thing,” he said of fatherhood. “I told Peta, I said listen you be my baby mama you make the money I’ll stay home I’ll cook I’ll clean. …This is the most beautiful thing in life, this,” he added of his kids.
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