Cheryl Burke has some advice for celebrity contestants who want to hit the dance floor on Dancing With the Stars: “Be single.”

“It’s an arranged marriage,” Burke said of the dynamic between the pro dancers and contestants on a recent episode of her Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast. “You either love each other or hate each other, for real.”

Working eight hours a day for seven days a week in the span of three months is “insane” and makes one “vulnerable,” the veteran pro dancer, who left the series in 2022 after 26 seasons, told guest and entertainment journalist Dave Quinn during a conversation about the intimacies of reality TV.

“It’s so intimate and you’re stuck with this person,” Burke said. “You get close in so many ways. These celebrities are so vulnerable because in order to succeed, you have to strip it all down. And that alone, I bet you most of these married celebrities have never even done that with their wives.”

Burke offered her advice to “be single” after Quinn shared that he knew about an unnamed celebrity “whose husband was really concerned about her going to do the show because he was concerned that she would fall in love with her dance partner.” He said, “That was like a big fear and a big conversation they had before she agreed to do it.”

“Did she fall in love?” Burke asked.

Quinn said that she did not, in fact, fall in love.

“Be single if you do Dancing with the Stars, that’s all I’m saying,” Burke said.

Burke previously touched on the topic earlier this year, telling Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes on their podcast that she’s been involved in showmances with former dance partners, one of which was former football player and season 10 contestant Chad Ochocinco Johnson. She boiled all of those relationships down to lust. “It’s not love,” she said at the time.

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A fixture of the long-running dancing competition series, Burke joined DWTS at the age of 21 in 2006, during season 2. She won her debut season and the following season 3, dancing alongside celebrity partners Drew Lachey and Emmitt Smith, respectively. Announcing her departure at the end of 2022, Burke said, “It is time for me to begin the next phase of my career, although dance will always be a part of me.”

Listen to Burke’s recent podcast episode with Quinn above.