Cheryl Burke slams critics who say she got a 'new face': 'Stop dissecting women's bodies' tram

   

Exhausted from answering questions about her appearance, Cheryl Burke has given her response.

"I'm not on Ozempic. I'm not sick. I didn't get 'a new face,'" the former Dancing With the Stars pro captioned a video on TikTok. "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."

See her full post below.

In the accompanying clip, the former Worst Cooks in America contestant elaborated on what others are saying about her.

"The level of projection that is happening and that I’m witnessing is wild. The way some of you guys talk about me, it's like you think I'm a headline or a filter, not a person," Burke continued. "But here's the most disappointing part that really gets me. 'We miss the old Cheryl!' The Suite Life of Zack & Cody Cheryl? Back in 2006? Dancing With the Stars season 2, when I was 21 years old? Or the three years ago Cheryl where I was going through divorce? Cause I hate to break it to you, but that Cheryl doesn't exist anymore."

Cheryl Burke at the 2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards held at the Dolby Theatre on March 17, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.
Burke appeared on a single episode of the Disney series early in her career, before dancing in the second season of DWTS. She left the reality competition in 2022, the same year that she and actor Matthew Lawrence, whom she had married in 2019, ended their union.

 

"The assumptions are just exhausting as hell," Burke continued. "The accusations are completely cruel and the fact that so many of them are actually coming from women, that's what is so shocking and hurtful, to be quite honest. I have 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."

Cheryl Burke poses for photographers in 2021
Burke explained that she's been through trauma that included her divorce, but she didn't want a "pity party." She just wanted to say that this is her at 41, someone who's still changing and growing. While she welcomed people who were following her to "evolve, to unlearn, to support," she warned that people there to "speculate, compare, or demand answers you're just not entitled to" were unwelcome.

Burke said that "my passion, my purpose, my commitment" is what has really changed.

To her, she said, it doesn't feel "safe" everywhere online like it once did.

"There's a tone now on certain platforms that feels more like a firing squad than actual community," Burke said. "And the saddest part of all is the way I'm witnessing women tear down other women, while pretending it's from concern."

Burke ended on a positive note, though, declaring that she was "still healing, still growing, and still choosing to show up."