Moving on. Val Chmerkovskiy was one of many professional dancers to take to social media following Lara Spencer’s recent comment on Good Morning America when she appeared to mock Prince George for taking ballet classes. The Dancing With the Stars pro, 33, wrote a long Instagram post on August 23 with a story and the hashtag “BoysDanceToo.”
However, he doesn’t hold a grudge against the TV host, 50, he told Us Weekly exclusively in a new interview — especially since she called him personally to apologize.
“I’m not defending her by any stretch of the imagination but she definitely reached out to the dance community, myself included,” he said on Thursday, September 5. “She called me and she was so devastated by the reaction and by what she’d done and she owned up to it and she apologized. I don’t think her intentions were to belittle his love for ballet.”
The 14-time U.S. National Latin Dance champion also noted that he can relate to being bullied in middle school for being a dancer, so he chooses to focus on the positive conversation that came after Spencer’s comments rather than the controversy.
“I told her this too, out of this, came this entire community coming together and celebrating male dancers,” he said. “I appreciated that more than I focused on my discourse toward Lara. I know the type of person she is. … Why aren’t we celebrating male dancers without Lara, the controversy? But it’s nice how it all came around. There was a backlash, there was a conversation, then there was a resolution.”
The two-time Dancing With the Stars winner also added that everyone is allowed to have their own opinion.
“It’s OK to laugh at dance and say, ‘Wow, you dance, haha.’ I laugh at curling. I hope people don’t get offended that I think curling is a silly sport,” Chmerkovskiy added. “That doesn’t mean that my opinion matters all that much, it’s just my opinion.”
Dancing With the Stars premieres on ABC Monday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET.
