Why Does EVERYONE Have an OPINION About Me?

The Dancing With the Stars champ has been refreshingly open about her struggles with mental health and body dysmorphic disorder, which begs a great question: Why are people still being such jerks to her?

- AMANDA WILLIAMS & POLLY HUDSON

Burke has scaled down her makeup since her DWTS days, but says she has not had plastic surgery and never will.

Cheryl Burke has had enough. Throughout her career, including 17 years competing as a pro on Dancing With the Stars (which she left in 2022), she's endured relentless body shaming. She also suffers from body dysmorphic disorder, an intense fixation on her looks and perceived flaws. For decades, she took other people's critiques to heart. No more. “I am done being judged,” the San Francisco native tells Us.

Burke's final straw was an onslaught of online bullying: After years of being told she was too big, her recent weight loss brought out brand-new trolls. Strangers tuning in for her popular “Get Ready With Me” videos and other social content felt comfortable telling her they thought she looked better before. Some accused her of using weight-loss drugs, having excessive plastic surgery and undergoing skin lightening, all of which she denies.

“It’s a tired subject, and it’s not just talking and commenting,” Burke says. “People are making full-on TikTok videos that they're editing together, scripting, using graphics, arrows, to point out my face, about the scars that they supposedly see.” She tells Us she’s astonished by the amount of time people have dedicated to tearing her apart.

Burke admits that her appearance has changed, but says it’s part of a natural transformation, both metaphorical and literal. “Think about the mask I was wearing on the show, from head to toe. My skin color was 20 shades darker,” Burke, 41, tells Us. “That was just what I knew; that’s the competitive ballroom world. I’m learning and realizing who I am underneath all of the makeup, without the tanning beds, the spray tans, all of the extra stuff that I now call a mask.”

With a renewed, recharged outlook on life — she’s single, celibate and seven years sober — Burke sat down with