Cheryl Burke claims her ex-boyfriend once whipped her with a belt in front of his parents, whom she says did nothing to help her.
The “Dancing With the Stars” dancer went into detail about the alleged experience on “Red Table Talk,” where she and hosts Jada Pinkett Smith, Adrienne Banfield-Norris, and an expert psychologist, discussed trauma bonding at length.
“In high school, I’ll never forget the person I was with on and off for about four years whipped me with a belt,” Burke, 38, said.
“And I had bruises all over my legs,” she went on. “I remember his parents were watching it — didn’t do anything.”
Burke clarified in detail to the horrified women, “And it wasn’t like he was hitting me; he was whipping me.”
Burke has shared her troubled past before stating, “My father passed away [in March 2018], and my dad was an alcoholic,” she shared in a September 2020 episode of the “LadyGang” podcast. “So either I was gonna crash and burn and check myself into rehab, or I was gonna just quit cold turkey.”
In a 2015 interview, Burke opened up about surviving sexual abuse as a child in the TLC special “Breaking the Silence.”
Burke said the abuse started when she was in kindergarten.
She didn’t name anyone specifically, but explained, “He would make me watch pornographic videos. He was kind of like that fatherly figure – I think he knew my weakness, that I was very insecure. He knew that no one was ever around.”
In the special, she said, “I was able to start building my confidence and know that I don’t need anybody to be happy. I just needed just me. I needed to know that I could do this on my own,” she continued. “I’m proof that you can actually move on from this.”
“I’m telling my story,” she told People at the time. “They’re not secrets. There’s no shame.”
Burke celebrated four years of sobriety in August.
Watch my interview with @GMA here… https://t.co/RsROkMXosD
— Cheryl Burke (@CherylBurke) August 11, 2022
