A heartbreaking end to the holidays. Cheryl Burke and Matthew Lawrence officially separated last month — just days after they spent Christmas together.
The Dancing With the Stars pro, 37, listed January 7 as her date of separation from the Boy Meets World alum, 42, in the divorce paperwork she filed in Los Angeles on Friday, February 18. Two weeks earlier, Burke shared an Instagram snap of herself and her husband enjoying the holidays with their pooch, Ysabella.
“Wishing you a very Merry Christmas ❤️🎄🎁,” the “Pretty Messed Up” podcast host wrote in December 2021, captioning a carousel of photos from the couple’s celebration. The slideshow also included some snaps of Burke hanging out with her sister Nicole.
The Dance Moms alum filed for divorce on Friday, citing irreconcilable differences. According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, the duo had a prenuptial agreement in place.
The twosome, who tied the knot in May 2019, met during season 3 of DWTS when Lawrence’s older brother, Joey Lawrence, was a contestant. The I Can Do That alum and the Pennsylvania native initially dated from February 2007 to February 2008. After calling it quits, they reunited in 2017 and got engaged the following year.
During an interview with Us in April 2020, Burke said that the early days of the coronavirus pandemic had “tested” the couple “for sure,” but she said that overall, their first year of marriage had been “great.”
Lawrence, for his part, said that “constant communication” was the couple’s secret to a healthy relationship. “When you stop that communication and when you don’t try every day is when things start to slowly fall apart,” he explained. “I think that’s really important.”
At the time, the pair said they were holding off on expanding their family, in part because of the pandemic and a potential move. “We’re just waiting to see what happens because I think we were going to move, we were going to start that next journey,” the Brotherly Love alum told Us. “But everything’s a little bit on pause right now. When this starts to clear out, I think we’ll have a better view or understanding.”
While they didn’t have any children together, the duo were proud parents to many pets. In addition to their French bulldog, the couple have “45-50 reptiles that live” with them.
“No snakes: That was the deal, no snakes,” Burke said during a January appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show. “But when we dated a little over a decade ago, I knew I would be marrying a guy who loves reptiles.”
