Cheryl Burkeis hoping to make amends withIan Ziering– her former partner onDancing with the Stars.
“The one thing I truly regret and want to make amends with is Ian Ziering,” she told her co-hostAJ McLeanshared. “I was completely out of line a few years ago, and I did a podcast where they were asking me who my favorite partner was and who did I hate the most. And I answered Ian Ziering, and I said something along the lines of ‘I’d rather slit my wrists than dance with Ian Ziering again.’ "
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Burke continued, “I truly am so sorry for being so inconsiderate and just talking trying to get a reaction and putting him as my punching bag really.”
“I took it to that next level of nastiness. I was so nasty,” theDWTSpro admitted. “And I’m here to publicly apologize to Ian and his family.”
Burke added, “I lost a lot of respect for myself. It haunts me till this day.”
It’s unclear if theDWTSpro reached out to Ziering directly.
Ziering’s rep did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
“I was like, ‘Hey execs’ – I was like crying to the executives – ‘Is there any way to force us, to just like eliminate us?’ " she said onAllegedly.
The pairing finished in fourth place.
Burke also said on the podcast, “The fact that his name’s not [pronounced] ‘EEE-an’ and it’s ‘EYE-an’ makes me want to throw up.”
Regarding her comment that Ziering “made me want to slit my wrists,” Burke apologized on Twitter for “seemingly makes light of suicide.”
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Burke continued, “I have many friends and family members that struggle with depression and thoughts of suicide. To have said something that seemingly makes a mockery of what they’ve gone through and what they live with is something that I apologize for. I never meant to hurt anyone or to trivialize the topic. I was out of line and for that I apologize.”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go tosuicidepreventionlifeline.org.
source: people.com
