‘Cheer’ Star Monica Aldama Addresses Jerry Harris Allegations, ‘DWTS’ Experience and More in ‘Full Out’ Memoir

Credit: ABC/Kelsey McNeal

‘Cheer’ Star Monica Aldama Addresses Jerry Harris Allegations, ‘DWTS’ Experience and More in ‘Full Out’ Memoir

More than just mat talk. Cheer star Monica Aldama gave an inside look at life after a successful Netflix show in her memoir, Full Out: Lessons in Life and Leadership from America’s Favorite Coach. Throughout the book, the Navarro College coach addressed the sexual misconduct allegations surrounding her former cheerleader Jerry Harris, got real about her divorce and subsequent remarriage to husband Chris Aldama, spoke about her relationship with Dancing With the Stars partner Val Chmerkovskiy and more. “I recorded the audio book a few weeks ago, and even just reading the audio book, I kind of got choked up on a couple of the topics, because they're just difficult. [Divorce is] an emotional topic to talk about,” Aldama, 49, told Us Weekly exclusively before the book’s Tuesday, January 4, release. “I've talked about it openly since I got divorced, just because I thought — even though I'm a very private person — I think the divorce was an eye-opening moment for me to go, ‘You should really be more vulnerable.’ What I learned through that is … I could actually help other people. So, I've never been ashamed of it. I've openly talked about it. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to talk about it in the book, because I just feel like it's such an important thing.” Aldama first married Chris — whom she calls her “high school sweetheart” — in January 1994. After tying the knot, the couple welcomed two kids, a son named Austin, now 25, and a daughter named Ally, now 21. When Aldama and Chris decided to get a divorce in 2006, their kids were 9 and 6, respectively. A year after they split, the couple reconciled and eventually remarried. “We tend to really sometimes treat people we love the most, the worst sometimes,” Aldama told Us when reflecting on their split. [jwplayer WptrWDg2] Aside from telling her life story, the Netflix star also offered life lessons to readers. “I definitely think that if you ask different people, the most important chapter is based on what they're going through in their own personal life,” Aldama explained to Us. “There is that whole chapter about positive self- talk. You have to believe in yourself. People love to see other people fail. This past year was really, really tough. There were a lot of times that I just talked to myself and just encouraged myself because I was going through a hard time. It's very important. You’re going to believe everything you tell yourself, so you definitely need to be careful what you say.” Full Out also does a deep dive on the Emmy Award-winning docuseries Cheer, which Aldama was a part of. The show became a phenomenon following its January 2020 premiere and is set to air its second season via Netflix on Wednesday, January 12. While season 2 promises to address former Navarro cheerleader Harris’ September 2020 arrest, Aldama recalled the moment she found out about the allegations in her book. Harris has since been charged with production of child pornography by the FBI and pleaded not guilty. The coach, for her part, was notified of the accusations hours before her first-ever Dancing With the Stars performance during the show’s 29^th season. “Obviously, I needed to address Jerry because that was just such a shocking, heartbreaking moment. I figured everyone wanted to know,” Aldama told Us. “It was such a hard, hard time for me, and it really made my experience on Dancing with the Stars, I think, even that much tougher. I don't think people really realize the emotional turmoil I was going through week to week when I was out there. So, I knew it had to be addressed.” Keep scrolling for the biggest revelations from Full Out: [podcast_block]

Credit: ABC/Kelsey McNeal

‘Cheer’ Star Monica Aldama Addresses Jerry Harris Allegations, ‘DWTS’ Experience and More in ‘Full Out’ Memoir

More than just mat talk. Cheer star Monica Aldama gave an inside look at life after a successful Netflix show in her memoir, Full Out: Lessons in Life and Leadership from America’s Favorite Coach. Throughout the book, the Navarro College coach addressed the sexual misconduct allegations surrounding her former cheerleader Jerry Harris, got real about her divorce and subsequent remarriage to husband Chris Aldama, spoke about her relationship with Dancing With the Stars partner Val Chmerkovskiy and more. “I recorded the audio book a few weeks ago, and even just reading the audio book, I kind of got choked up on a couple of the topics, because they're just difficult. [Divorce is] an emotional topic to talk about,” Aldama, 49, told Us Weekly exclusively before the book’s Tuesday, January 4, release. “I've talked about it openly since I got divorced, just because I thought — even though I'm a very private person — I think the divorce was an eye-opening moment for me to go, ‘You should really be more vulnerable.’ What I learned through that is … I could actually help other people. So, I've never been ashamed of it. I've openly talked about it. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to talk about it in the book, because I just feel like it's such an important thing.” Aldama first married Chris — whom she calls her “high school sweetheart” — in January 1994. After tying the knot, the couple welcomed two kids, a son named Austin, now 25, and a daughter named Ally, now 21. When Aldama and Chris decided to get a divorce in 2006, their kids were 9 and 6, respectively. A year after they split, the couple reconciled and eventually remarried. “We tend to really sometimes treat people we love the most, the worst sometimes,” Aldama told Us when reflecting on their split. [jwplayer WptrWDg2] Aside from telling her life story, the Netflix star also offered life lessons to readers. “I definitely think that if you ask different people, the most important chapter is based on what they're going through in their own personal life,” Aldama explained to Us. “There is that whole chapter about positive self- talk. You have to believe in yourself. People love to see other people fail. This past year was really, really tough. There were a lot of times that I just talked to myself and just encouraged myself because I was going through a hard time. It's very important. You’re going to believe everything you tell yourself, so you definitely need to be careful what you say.” Full Out also does a deep dive on the Emmy Award-winning docuseries Cheer, which Aldama was a part of. The show became a phenomenon following its January 2020 premiere and is set to air its second season via Netflix on Wednesday, January 12. While season 2 promises to address former Navarro cheerleader Harris’ September 2020 arrest, Aldama recalled the moment she found out about the allegations in her book. Harris has since been charged with production of child pornography by the FBI and pleaded not guilty. The coach, for her part, was notified of the accusations hours before her first-ever Dancing With the Stars performance during the show’s 29^th season. “Obviously, I needed to address Jerry because that was just such a shocking, heartbreaking moment. I figured everyone wanted to know,” Aldama told Us. “It was such a hard, hard time for me, and it really made my experience on Dancing with the Stars, I think, even that much tougher. I don't think people really realize the emotional turmoil I was going through week to week when I was out there. So, I knew it had to be addressed.” Keep scrolling for the biggest revelations from Full Out: [podcast_block]

Credit: Courtesy Netflix

Filming a Netflix Show

In the book, Aldama recounted the early days of Cheer and how, at first, she didn’t think that her squad would ever get chosen to be the focus of a docuseries. But when Cheer premiered, everything changed for her and Navarro College. Once Aldama watched the show for the first time, she recalled a “deeper” understanding of “the squad’s challenges.”

“Seeing their profiles in the documentary made me understand them much better, and I was glad to see how much the world responded to their spirits,” she wrote. “It’s one thing to hear, ‘I had it rough as a kid.’ It’s another to hear about abuse and neglect. When you see these brave young people pouring their hearts out, how can you not feel moved?”

Cheer focused primarily on Lexi Brumback, Gabi Butler, La’Darius Marshall, Morgan Simianer and Mackenzie Sherburn. They’ve all had continued success after the series, and Aldama wrote that they’re “all profoundly grateful.”

Credit: Courtesy Netflix

Being a Coach … and a Mom

Other than her biological children, Aldama explained in Full Out how she’s become a surrogate mom to her cheerleaders. “I have to get to know them to understand how to help them,” she wrote.

During one chapter in the book, the coach recalled getting a late-night phone call from the Navarro campus police who had pulled over one of her cheerleaders and suspected she had been drinking. Aldama did not hesitate to go pick up the student, but after a lengthy discussion, the coach instructed her cheerleader to walk home. The Cheer star trailed her team member home the entire way in her car.

“We make fun of that story — she and I do. We laugh at that now,” Aldama told Us exclusively. “It's just one of those lessons of: ‘I'm gonna be here for you, but you still need to learn.’ We have a great relationship. We just laugh about it now. Some of the things they put me through, they laugh about now.”

Credit: Courtesy Netflix

Dealing With the Critics

Following the show’s release, Aldama started receiving criticisms from viewers. In the book, she noted that some people accused her of “torturing” her cheerleaders, while others just called her a “bitch.” One person, Aldama recalled, sent her death threats on Twitter.

“My mantra when it comes to aggressive messages from strangers is: delete, delete, delete,” she wrote. “But a threat of death wasn’t something I could just delete and forget about.”

While the situation did not escalate further, Aldama and her squad’s newfound fame brought more security measures to their practice gym to protect everyone from possible prying eyes.

Credit: Courtesy Monica Aldama/Instagram

Getting Divorced and Remarried

When discussing her relationship with husband Chris, the cheerleading coach wrote that things in their relationship got rocky when they had kids.

“Having babies can be one of the hardest times of your life. You don’t sleep. You worry. I was working a lot while we were trying to raise these young children. And our marriage suffered,” Aldama shared in her book. “It can be easy to forget to take care of each other. In 2006, things reached a crisis point: we got a divorce.”

While Aldama wrote it was good to “take the time to reflect on ourselves,” they eventually brought their family back together.

Credit: ABC/Kelsey McNeal

Staying Strong in Her Beliefs

Aldama didn’t write much about religion throughout the book, but in one particular chapter, she recalled feeling “uncomfortable” at her past church following a sermon that went against her beliefs of supporting the LGBTQ+ community.

After hearing the sermon, Aldama wrote in Full Out that she went home from church that day and openly disagreed with her pastor’s words on Facebook. This, in turn, led to “long conversation” with the pastor in which they did not see eye to eye.

“At that point, Chris and I both started to ask ourselves if we were at the right church for us,” Aldama wrote, noting that her husband “may have been even more angry about the sermon than I was.”

Since then, they have joined a new church where, Monica wrote, “everyone is made to feel welcome and where everyone is shown grace.”

Credit: John Locher/AP/Shutterstock

Reacting to the Jerry Harris Allegations

“My heart almost jumped out of my chest,” Aldama wrote about the accusations. “I felt like I couldn’t breathe.”

She went on to detail her experience with Harris before his sexual misconduct accusations went public and revealed that she has yet to read the USA Today article that exposed his alleged wrongdoings. As news the investigation and subsequent FBI raid of Harris’ house came to light, Aldama virtually met with her team as she was in L.A. competing on Dancing With the Stars amid the scandal. The coach decided that, going forward, she would educate her cheerleaders about “sexuality and boundaries.”

Credit: ABC/Eric McCandless

What ‘Dancing With the Stars’ Was Really Like

Amid the Harris scandal, Aldama was competing on DWTS. She wrote that she was “stressed and struggling emotionally” while competing on the show. She recapped each week and dance in detail, even explaining what the live shows were like behind-the-scenes.

Although there were hardships during her time on the reality competition series, Aldama felt support all the way from Corsicana, Texas.

“The show was the hardest thing I’d ever done,” Aldama wrote. “Still, I would do it all over again in a second.”

Credit: Broadimage/Shutterstock

Her Relationship With Val Chmerkovskiy

While talking about her DWTS experience, Aldama got real about the relationship and “chemistry” with her partner, Chmerkovskiy. The cheer coach spoke candidly about the ups and downs they experienced amid the show’s 29th season, which included an argument between the two at rehearsal during week five. The pair was preparing a tango set to “Tainted Love.”

“In the middle of one run-through, he stopped and angrily told me that I had to stop looking down at our feet. His body language and tone communicated pure disgust,” Aldama recalled. “My posture was also an issue. It was the last thing on my mind when I was trying to learn the steps and just make it through the routine.”

Eventually, the two had an off-camera heart-to-heart in the bathroom, which changed their relationship into a real friendship. “I laid it all out for Val. I told him everything that I had held in, including how he made me feel emotionally and physically,” she wrote. Ultimately, they were voted off during week seven, but Aldama and Chmerkovskiy left the show with a newfound friendship.

Credit: Uncredited/Invision/AP/Shutterstock

How Life Changed After ‘Cheer’

Aside from the Emmy nominations, notoriety, DWTS and talk show appearances, Aldama still considers herself “a very private person.” Throughout Full Out, the coach explained that while a lot of things had changed, her life did stay the same — especially when it came to her squad and vying for a win at the National Cheerleaders Association’s National Championship trophy.

“It was shocking to me to have some of the comments, DMs and messages that I got that were just coming at me as if I were somebody that I'm truly not,” Aldama told Us exclusively about life in the public eye. “But there's also a lot of love. Honestly, there was so much more love than anything else, and I appreciate that so much.”