For Dancing With the Stars pros Emma Slater and Sasha Farber, working with an ex is like having a superpower.
“It’s not a nightmare at all,” Slater, 34, told E! News on Thursday, October 5, when asked how she felt competing against her former flame on season 32 of the dance competition series. “We support each other so much that I want the very best for Sasha. I love him and Alyson [Hannigan] together on the show. We support each other, very, very truly.”
Slater added that she and Farber, 39, will even jump in and offer some assistance if the other needs. “I’ll help him with his dance and he’ll help me with my dance,” she “shared. We do that, all us pros together. I don’t feel that competition at all with him.”
Us Weekly broke the news in August 2022 that the pair had separated that April after more than four years of marriage. They’ve been apart for many months now,” a source exclusively told Us at the time. “They both have not been wearing their wedding rings and are each leading a single life. It’s been a difficult time since they really care about each other and have been together for so long.”
Slater filed for divorce six months later, citing “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the split, according to documents obtained by Us. The Australia native later opened up about the reasons behind the break up during an August episode of the “Viall Files” podcast, noting that while the twosome are still “like family” they are simply in different places in their lives.
“It’s really the kid thing,” she confessed to host Nick Viall. “It’s interesting because I do want to have kids, I just don’t want to delay Sasha’s path in having kids because I know that he is ready for that. I don’t want to talk about him too much because that’s really for him to say, but it’s about kids.”
Slater further explained that she and Farber “did have” conversations about family planning throughout the course of their relationship, but she felt a “resistance” in the last few years. “So, that’s been the real friction and the real hard part,” she said. “It had nothing to do with him. He’s always been very much himself. It’s me that’s found it difficult to understand why I’m feeling different.”
Despite going their separate ways romantically, Slater and Farber have continued to work as fellow choreographers on DWTS and have often cheered one another on. Slater sang Farber and his partner Selma Blair’s praises after a particularly emotional performance on season 31.
“[My face] was streaming with tears. It’s just something that is so indescribable,” she told Us and other reporters in September 2022. “To look at her and to say she’s an inspiration is an understatement. She is just magical to me. … Look, she’s actually living out her fear. And I know that took a lot of courage. I can’t even imagine what a true inspiration she is to a lot of people. I feel blessed that she’s on the show.”
Slater, meanwhile, made headlines for her connection to season 31 partner Trevor Donovan after the pair performed a sexy rumba during week two of the competition. At the time, Donovan, 50, credited the steamy chemistry to their “communication foundation.”
“She knows how to talk to me and teach me because I don’t know what the heck I’m doing. It’s really important that she’s patient. She knows how to direct me. It’s going great,” he told Us in September 2022.
Slater echoed his sentiments, telling Us, “We genuinely get on really well, like, rehearsals go so quick. We really do get on and have great chemistry, which made this dance so much easier. But then when Alfonso asked that question, I was so glad you answered because I was like, ‘I can’t.’”
For season 32 of DWTS, which premiered last month, Slater is Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’ Mauricio Umansky, who recently separated from wife Kyle Richards. Farber, for his part, is dancing alongside Hannigan, 49.
