Cheryl Burke Gets Candid About 'Dancing With The Stars' Days: 'Too Fat For TV'

Former'Dancing With The Stars'pro Cheryl Burke is letting down her walls and spilling what it was like during her days on the show.

The 39-year-old appeared on the dancing competition show for 26 seasons before she announced her departure in November 2022.

Over the years, she has been open about her body dysmorphia -- something she struggled with while on 'Dancing With The Stars.'

According to the Mayo Clinic, body dysmorphic disorder is a mental health condition in which an individual can't stop thinking about the perceived defects or flaws in their body. The clinic defines a flaw as something that "appears minor or can't be seen by others."

Body dysmorphia is something Burke has struggled with over the years and something she has publicly spoken about in the past. She revisited her struggle with the mental health condition when speaking with Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes on their 'Amy & T.J. Podcast.'

“As far as wearing one of the outfits, I would probably get on some, I don't know, some sort of strict diet," the former 'Dancing With The Stars' pro said. “But that's my body dysmorphia that I'll forever have... I'm very open with that.”

Burke then went on to discuss her experience as a professional dancer and how the experience contributed to her body dysmorphia. “I started [the show] when I was 21 years old," she recalled. "I went through this horrific like, ‘She's too fat for TV too.’ ”

“I was growing into who I am as a woman as well. And with that, I did gain weight,” she said on the podcast.

Around season 7, she had an unforgettable experience, Burke said. “When you first see yourself like being talked about like on KTLA, you're like, ‘Wait, what is this?’ ”

Robach asked, “Wait, what? You were being talked about? What your body looked like?” Burke confirmed with a simple, "Yeah."

“Who was saying that you were overweight?” Robach asked the 'DWTS' pro.

“I think it was just people like people that watch the show. I mean, you know, I did gain a few pounds during the hiatus. Yes, I mean, naturally right like we do,” Burke explained. “But like, I am curvy in comparison to a lot of the other professional women.”

Burke admitted that “whenever [she] did gain weight, it was a thing.”

Unfortunately for women, Burke believes the talk about appearance and weight "was a thing that back in the day,” but thinks that “nowadays no one would ever say anything. Times have changed.”

Burke said that the show never pressured her to fit into a certain size or lose weight, but rather her own “self-hate” that made her care so much about her appearance.

“I'm not [going to] say I'm fully recovered, but I'm definitely healing,” she told Robach and Holmes. “That's [going to] be a forever process.”

Two years ago, the 'DWTS" pro revealed she suffered from body dysmorphia when speaking to Sean Hayes and Dr. Priyanka Wali on their podcast 'Hypochondriactor.'

"Now that I'm sober, I have body dysmorphia because I'm a dancer," Burke admitted at the time. "I mean, tell me one dancer that doesn't. So when I look at myself in the mirror and someone says, 'Oh, you look amazing,' I see someone who is overweight and, in my eyes and in my way of judging myself, not amazing."

The now 39-year-old claims she "knew [she] had a problem" when she went back and rewatched old seasons. "I was pretty skinny, and yet I was still giving wardrobe hassle in our fittings," Burke said. "Not hassling them, but more like, 'Oh, I feel like sh-t' or 'Oh my God, look at my fat roll.' And it's just so ridiculous, right?"

Burke also revealed what led to her "tipping point" with body dysmorphia.

"Not only was my dance coach just harder on me, but because I'm naturally curvy, like I have hip bones, it is what it is. But also, the nation decided to call me fat about season seven or eight when I got off my birth control and I retained 15 lbs. of water weight, which I thought was going [to be the opposite, obviously]," she said. "Normally, people lose weight when they get off birth control."

The professional dancer added, "I have to be very conscious and take a step back."