Brian Austin Green was disheartened that Dancing With the Stars’ special tribute dance for Len Goodman did not include his fiancée, former pro Sharna Burgess.
“I can’t begin to tell you how [disappointed] I was for @sharnaburgess to not be invited for the tribute last night,” Green, 50, wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, October 25. “It’s disappointing as well that none of her ‘family in the ballroom’ stuck up for her or spoke out.”
He went on to call Burgess “an incredible soul and has always been a friend to everyone.” He concluded: “She deserved better. #FamilySticksTogether.”
The DWTS pro dancers performed a moving waltz to Henry Mancini’s “Moon River” during the Tuesday, October 24, episode. The number — which was choreographed by Val Chmerkovskiy and his wife, Jenna Johnson — even brought back a number of former pros from the show. Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Karina Smirnoff, Mark Ballas, Kym Johnson-Herjavec, Tony Dovolani, Anna Trebunskaya, Louis van Amstel and Edyta Sliwinska joined the current DWTS stars for the dance. The group paid tribute to head judge Goodman, who died at the age of 78 in April after a battle with cancer.
“She wasn’t even invited to sit in the stands and watch,” Green, who proposed to Burgess in July, added in his social media upload on Wednesday. “Shame on that group of people. Kindness is an action, and so is love. @cherylburke should have been there as well.”
Fellow former pro Cheryl Burke previously revealed via Threads on October 19 that she had not been invited to participate. (Burke left the show in 2022 after 26 seasons and won the mirrorball twice.)
Burgess — who has not addressed the drama — was a pro dancer on DWTS starting in 2014. The Australia native won the mirrorball in season 27 with radio DJ Bobby Bones, nearly two years before competing alongside then-boyfriend Green during season 30.
Burgess previously claimed earlier this year that she hadn’t been asked back for this year’s season 32. (She voluntarily sat out season 31 after the birth of her and Green’s son, Zane, in June 2022.)
“I love that show, and I think … two things can be true. I can be deeply upset or heartbroken that I didn’t get the phone call that I wanted, and I can also deeply love the show and always want to come back to it,” Burgess exclusively told Us Weekly in September. “I grew up on that show. It will always have my heart. The people there, the cast, the crew, have my heart being a part of that. I’ll always want to be a part of it in some way if I can. So if they call next year, of course, I would say yes, definitely.”
