The Best Real-Life Romances To Come From The Dancing With The Stars Ballroom
The American version of "Dancing With the Stars" has been on television since 2005. The show's premise is that professional dancers are partnered up with a celebrity. Each week, the dancer and their star perform ballroom dances of various styles. Week by week, teams are eliminated until the finale — when one team is given the first-place prize, the Mirrorball trophy (which has been dubbed the Len Goodman Mirrorball trophy after the late "DWTS" judge).
In December 2023, "Dancing With the Stars" Season 32 came to a close. Actor Xochitl Gomez and her professional dance partner Val Chmerkovskiy were the champions. One behind-the-scenes storyline that caught lots of peoples' attention in Season 32 was the rumored romance between "DWTS" professional Rylee Arnold and Harry Jowsey.
Although there was nothing but speculation to those rumors, there have been many couples that found real love in the ballroom — sometimes between two professional dancers, other times between a professional and the star they were partnered with. Some of the couples are still going strong, even without the magic of dance to keep them together.
Shark Tank star Robert Herjavec danced his way around the ballroom with his future wife
"Shark Tank" mogul Robert Herjavec joined "Dancing With the Stars" for Season 20 and was partnered with dance pro Kym Johnson (now Kym Johnson-Herjavec). People reported that Herjavec had been separated from his wife Diane Plese since July 2014, with an official divorce impending.
Herjavec and Johnson-Herjavec got together after their time on the show, but not without sharing a little romance on the dance floor in the form of a kiss during a performance. At the time, Johnson-Herjavec told Us Weekly, "It was just part of the dance!" Herjavec echoed her sentiments and said, "We're professional dancers, we were just in the moment."
Herjavec-Johnson told People in 2016 that her relationship with Herjavec did start platonically, which helped set a foundation for their romance. However, prior to their on-screen kiss, Us Weekly reported that sources said the dance partners had feelings for each other from the beginning. Herjavec confirmed that in a 2023 interview on "Live with Kelly and Mark." On knowing that their relationship was more than just a professional one, Herjavec said, "Well I, I knew right away. But it took a little while for me to 'sell' Kym on the idea." Not too long, evidently, because by 2016, the couple were engaged and then married that same year. In 2018, they added twins to their family.
Maks Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd broke up and got back together
One iconic "Dancing With the Stars" couple actually met before joining the show, but their time on the show is what brought them together. Maksim "Maks" Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd were a part of "Burn the Floor" on Broadway in 2009, and Murgatroyd initially was not so sure about the man she would one day marry. She told People in July 2017, "I thought he was arrogant." Chmerkovskiy then tried to say Murgatroyd actually loved him immediately and added, "No, I walked in the way I walk in and ... it's just a lot of presence." Murgatroyd explained that she eventually learned she was wrong about him, "and our friendship grew and grew."
In 2011, Murgatroyd joined "DWTS" (which Chmerkovskiy was already on) and the duo became good friends. At first, they were with other people. Some time after their previous relationships ended, Murgatroyd and Chmerkovskiy's friendship went to the next level. There was a bit of an on-and-off nature to their relationship, but their breakup only lasted about a year before they were back together again.
According to People, Chmerkovskiy proposed on-air in December 2015. The couple then had a child in January 2017 and got married in July of that same year. After dealing with infertility issues, Chmerkovskiy and Murgatroyd had a second child in June 2023. Maybe their sons have inherited a dancing gene!
Britt Stewart says marriage with her former DWTS partner Daniel Durant 'will be part of our story'
Another story of a professional dancer and their assigned star falling in love happened in Season 31 with dancer Britt Stewart and actor Daniel Durant. Durant is deaf, and Stewart learned American Sign Language while they were working together. Durant told People: "She's so friendly and she's ready to work with me from that first day. And she started teaching me her dance and I started teaching her sign language right away. And I'm not joking, after maybe two weeks we communicate with ourselves."
After dancing together in 2022, Stewart and Durant announced their relationship via Instagram on Valentine's Day 2023. Durant shared a sweet selfie, and Stewart posted a fun video of the duo. In the comments of Stewart's post, one person wrote, "DWTS has a better success rate than 'The Bachelor/Bachelorette'!"
While speaking with Us Weekly in August 2023, Stewart said it's okay that she and Durant didn't win their "DWTS" season. "We're really proud and we kind of have [an] inside joke that, you know, we got something much better than the mirrorball," she said. Stewart also told The Messenger a couple of months later that marriage is in the cards: "No [wedding] plans yet, but we do know that eventually that will be part of our story."
Artem Chigvintsev and Nikki Bella's wedding was delayed, but they eventually made it down the aisle
Season 25 also brought a "Dancing With the Stars" team together beyond just a professional or platonic relationship. Professional dancer Artem Chigvintsev and Nikki Bella, former WWE wrestler, were partnered up for the dancing reality show. While they were on the show in 2017, Bella was engaged to John Cena. Although Bella and Chigvintsev didn't leave "DWTS" in a relationship, after her and Cena's breakup, she started casually dating Chigvintsev in late 2018. The news was confirmed to People in January 2019, but the couple said their relationship status was official in July of that year on "The Bellas Podcast" (now called "The Nikki & Brie Show"). By November, they were engaged.
In January 2020, the couple announced that Bella was pregnant, and their son was born that July. Due to a variety of setbacks, Bella and Chigvintsev's wedding was postponed multiple times. At one point, Bella explained she wasn't quite ready to marry Chigvintsev yet. However, everything got sorted out and they tied the knot in August 2022.
On their one-year wedding anniversary, Bella posted a sweet Instagram tribute to her husband. Her caption included many sweet sentiments, including: "You are everything I could have dreamed of. I love doing life with you."
Emma Slater and Sasha Farber had a beautiful love story, but it didn't last
Sadly, not every "Dancing With the Stars" romance ends with the lovers twirling off into the sunset. Sometimes, couples that meet on the show split. That happened with "DWTS" professional dancers Emma Slater and Sasha Farber. The duo met on the show in 2009 and were friends first, but Farber told People that "three or four months" after he met Slater, he was sure he wanted to be with her.
The dancers began dating in 2011, and although Slater and Farber had a brief split, they got back together and then were engaged in 2016. Like Maks Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd, Slater and Farber got engaged during a "DWTS" episode. They got married in 2018.
By 2022, the couple separated, though. Slater filed for divorce in February 2023, and said parenthood was the reason for her and Farber's split — Slater was not ready to have kids and didn't want to hold Farber back from starting a family. However, there doesn't seem to be any awkwardness between them, since they both still work together on "DWTS." Slater told E! News in October 2023, "We support each other, very, very truly." She added, "I'll help him with his dance and he'll help me with my dance. We do that, all us pros together. I don't feel that competition at all with him."