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Cheryl Burke has fired back after Alix Earle’s stepmother, Ashley Dupré, body-shamed the Dancing with the Stars guest judge for the scores she gave the influencer on the Oct. 28 episode.
Burke, 41, was a guest judge on DWTS’s Halloween Night, and awarded the influencer the only 9 out of 10s following her tango alongside pro partner Val Chmerkovskiy to Billie Eilish’s “bury a friend.”
Dupré, who was watching alongside Earle’s younger siblings from home, posted a video to TikTok scoffing, “Oh, go take more Ozempic!” to Burke, adding, “She looks weird. Doesn’t even look like her.”
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But as Burke said in a response video posted to Instagram on Oct. 30, “My goal was just to be able to give any helpful notes if needed, because that’s all I can really do.”
Dancing with the Stars is “about growth. It’s about progression. It’s not about perfection, and it’s definitely about each couple’s personal journey,” Burke said in her video. “How can anyone grow or improve if they feel they don’t get enough constructive criticism?”
She continued: “I have seen so many mixed reviews, which is totally fine, but what’s not okay is I’ve also seen so many aggressive ones and a lot of body shaming ones and also some amazing and beautiful messages and even some constructive criticism, which I am all here for.”
“I know that I did the best that I could with the information that I had — and with what I saw in real time — and for the people who think body shaming is okay, especially in front of your children, that sends a powerful message about what you value, and clearly it’s not kindness.” Her comments seemed to be directed at Dupré, as children were in the video and could be heard asking what she meant by “take more Ozempic?”
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Burke continued to defend her score, saying, “I was simply again doing my job as a judge, giving feedback based on almost 20 years of my life, and if my score was different from the other judges, it was by 1 point. I have dedicated my whole life to being a competitor of ballroom dancing, and, you know, you don’t have to agree with my critique, but you do have to recognize the influence your words have on the next generation watching you.”
“If that’s the example you choose to set, then please, I beg of you, leave my name out of it.”
Burke has also previously addressed claims that she’s taken a GLP-1 for weight loss, telling PEOPLE earlier this year: “These are all assumptions that people have thrown at me, as far as Ozempic, my face … I’ve always had criticism, but what’s shocking is that this is worse than when I gained weight. These are really mean and cruel messages.”
