Cheryl Burke Opens Up About Body Dysmorphia Struggles
Cheryl Burke cleared the air about her weight loss after fans accused her of taking Ozempic. The Dancing With the Stars alum gotcandid about her struggles with body dysmorphia that she has suffered from since childhood and revealed how it’s impacted her today.
“Even before my Dancing With the Stars career, my weight has always been an issue. I think what people sometimes don’t understand is it is a lot of work [and] it takes a lot of work and it takes a lot of self-care,” Cheryl, 41, told Entertainment Tonight on May 30. “I have to say, in the height of my insecurity and my body dysmorphia were weekly fittings on the show. I don’t blame the show by any means, but it’s just the name of the game.”
The professional dancer reflected on “squeezing into these costumes, and it is what it is. It would affect me to the point where I would weigh myself constantly [and] I would travel with a scale.”
Despite her recent weight loss transformation, Cheryl considers herself “very curvy” and told the outlet that it comes down to her “bone structure.”
“I think a lot of people may now take my weight loss as, ‘She’s not a good example.’ … I have chosen to lose weight to work on myself to feel good, to actually love what I see in the mirror, but more importantly, to love me,” she continued.
Cheryl Burke.
Fans began to notice Cheryl’s slimmer figure as she attended red carpet events earlier this year. Rumors started to swirl that the celebrity either got plastic surgery to achieve her new look or took Ozempic.
On May 18, Cheryl slammed the criticism and denied going under the knife or taking the injectable drug, which has taken over Hollywood for its weight loss benefits.
“I’m not on Ozempic. I’m not sick. I didn’t get ‘a new face,’” she captioned the “get unready with me” TikTok at the time. “Stop dissecting women’s bodies like they belong to you. This is YOUR reminder: I don’t owe you an explanation for my healing or for anything quite frankly. Let this be the last time I have to say it.”
In the video, Cheryl echoed the same sentiment as her caption and also denied getting a brow lift. She continued to slam people for “projecting” on her and shamed them for treating her like a “filter,” and not a person.
That’s what is so shocking and hurtful, to be quite honest.
“I’ve been in the public eye since I was 21 years old. My body has changed over the past 20 years. My face has changed because I’ve changed. I’ve experienced so much trauma, divorce, and this is by no means a pity party,” Cheryl said of her divorce from ex-husband Matthew Lawrence before briefly touching on her “sobriety, burnout, reinvention.”
“I’ve healed, I’ve lost, I’ve grieved like anybody else. And yeah, maybe it shows, but I’m not sorry for it, not one bit, not one bit,” she continued. “Do you want to know what’s really changed? My passion, my purpose, my commitment, my commitment to using this platform for something real. But what’s been so challenging honestly lately is this pressure to prove that I haven’t done something. To convince people that honestly that my healing is valid simply because it doesn’t come with a before and after label they approve of. I’m still the same person who has advocated for mental health for many years and body image for years. I just do it differently now.”