Sherri Shepherd offered support to her former Dancing With the Stars partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, during his one-week suspension from the show following his controversial comment toward judge Carrie Ann Inaba.
“I texted him right away,” Shepherd, 59, exclusively told Us on Monday, November 2, after her guest appearance on season 35’s Disney Night. “I said, ‘You know what? Those who know you know you got a heart of gold.’ First of all, the No. 1 woman in his life is his mama, and he would never disrespect his mama. No, she raised him right.”
The drama began during Super Bowl Night on October 13, when Inaba, 58, criticized pro Jenna Johnson and her celebrity partner, Harry Shum Jr., for an illegal lift in their samba. Johnson, 32, looked visibly confused by the comment, prompting Inaba to read the exact definition of a lift on camera. Johnson later claimed she didn’t think the rule applied since Shum, 44, was lifted by troupe dancers.
Chmerkovskiy, 40, later defended his wife via social media, writing in a comment that was quickly deleted, “You almost saw the Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night,” referencing when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars. Chmerkovskiy was subsequently suspended from DWTS’ Dedication Night, with BBC Studios calling his comment “inappropriate.”
While discussing the controversy with Us on Monday, Shepherd — who danced with Chmerkovskiy during season 14 in 2012 — said she felt people “took [his comment] the wrong way.”
“But you know what? Val is amazing. He’s got an amazing heart. He loves his wife. He loves his partner. He loves me. And I said, ‘More people are gonna love you,’” she continued. “I’m Team Val every day, all day.”
Shepherd said she and Chmerkovskiy even joked about the lift situation when they reunited on Disney Night.
“You want to know the first thing I said to Val? I said, ‘Look here, baby. Everybody’s doing lifts on this show, and you told me when I did the show that there was no lifts allowed.’ I said, ‘Was it just because you didn’t want to lift me?’” she quipped. “He said, ‘No, Sherri, I did.’ I said, ‘No, you grunted a lot.’”
Chmerkovskiy’s season 35 partner, Jenna Dewan, danced with Alan Bersten during Dedication Night amid his suspension. Before returning to the ballroom, Chmerkovskiy issued a public apology.
“In a moment where my instinct was to defend my wife, I made a poor decision to reference a meme to keep my wife’s name out of the conversation without stopping to think through what else that reference could imply, which was genuinely never my intention,” he wrote via Instagram on October 17.
Inaba and Chmerkovskiy were seen sharing a hug at the end of Horror Movie Night on October 27, seemingly putting the drama behind them.
Dancing With the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+.
