An unlikely pair? When Peta Murgatroyd first met Maksim Chmerkovskiy in 2009, dating him “wasn’t even a thought that crossed [her] mind,” the New Zealand-born Australian dancer exclusively told Us Weekly.
“I never thought that we were going to be together,” the former Dancing With the Stars pro, 32, told Us of her now-husband on Wednesday, February 13, ahead of the release of her new movie, Faith, Hope and Love.
It took three years for things to turn romantic between the former Broadway castmates. (They both appeared in Burn the Floor along with their fellow DWTS stars, including Sharna Burgess, Sasha Ferber, Karina Smirnoff and Henry Byalikov in 2009.) Four more years later — with one breakup in between — they tied the knot in a lavish ceremony at Huntington, New York’s Oheka Castle.
Today, Murgatroyd and the Ukraine-born dance pro, 39, are focused on raising their 2-year-old son, Shai, together. “We have constant dance parties throughout the day with him,” she said. “I definitely feel like he loves music, you know. We put Alexa on and he’s obsessed with Pitbull and Dua Lipa.”
Something Shai isn’t so keen on: vegetables. “We’ve really tried to be so healthy with him. The most unhealthy thing he has is organic popsicles, but he has that, like, three times a week or something,” revealed the two-time Mirrorball trophy winner. “We have to definitely mash up the vegetables still because if he sees a green piece of broccoli on his plate, he just will not eat it,” she said.
Murgatroyd added that Chmerkovskiy has been super supportive of her new venture into big-screen acting. “He has always believed that I could do it and has always really pushed me in a good way into doing and experiencing new art forms. I mean, he is my number one supporter and he’s always the one to tell me, ‘You need to go and do this! You need to try this! You need to see if you’re good at this!’” she gushed. “It means everything to me to have such a solid family backing. He’s incredible.”
Faith, Hope and Love hits theaters on Friday, March 15.
