From enemies to nearly lovers — things could’ve gotten spicy between Brooke Burke and Derek Hough after they were partnered together on “Dancing with the Stars.”
Brooke, 52, revealed Monday on former “DWTS” pro Cheryl Burke’s “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans” podcast that she and Hough, 38, originally weren’t “gelling” before they won the Mirrorball Trophy in 2008, but ended up looking for couples therapy arranged by producers.
But in the long run, the TV personality and former “DWTS” host admitted that she ended up “crushing on Derek.”
“Had I not been married [to actor David Charvet] … I might have actually hoped we might have had a love affair,” Brooke gushed to Cheryl.
“I might have had an affair with him. But listen, let me let you know why: You’re intertwined with someone’s body if you’re not a dancer. There isn’t a way that I have ever been so connected — besides with a lover or a husband — than I was with Derek. And it’s each day.”
The Post has contacted reps for Brooke and Hough for comment.
Brooke continued: “So for 3 months, you’re in someone’s arms. Why do you think people fall in love? You smell them, you’re feeling them, you’re respiratory with them. It might be more intimate than making love in a bedroom — you’re making love on a dance floor, you’re feeling more connected.”
“In case you have energy, you’re doing this dance and also you’re within the rhythm, after which there’s trust, then you definitely’re sharing fear, you’re doing something you’ve never done. How persistently do you undergo an experience with someone where they’re all you’ve got?” she asked.
Brooke revealed to Burke that she’d only ever “had one experience with one person like that [outside the ballroom].
“Life-changing,” she called it.
Brooke and Charvet divorced in 2020.
Brooke also addressed being ousted as “DWTS” host alongside Tom Bergeron, 68, in 2014.
“I wasn’t given a reason. I believe that’s the frustrating part,” Brooke told Cheryl about her sudden departure. “It might have been one thing if I sucked on the job, or I had an issue or I had a falling out, or I was a diva, or really complicated to work with, or the audience just straight up didn’t like me. There wasn’t really a reason.”
She continued: “What I might have liked would have been to have a really adult, respectful conversation that may have gone something like ‘we’re not going to renew your contract and we’re making some changes. We’re taking a look at some recent people, and we just want to offer you a heads-up, and for those who’d like to support that publicly, great?’”
“Should we make an announcement together? Great,” Burke dreamed about how the conversation could’ve gone.
“I truthfully would have accepted that, respected it and been all on-board,” she claimed.
Despite the drama, Burke was thankful for the experience.
“One among the best feelings was winning — nevertheless it was also completing an experience and giving it my all, all the pieces that I had. And that I was really happy with. Even when I didn’t win, I was really happy with … devoting three months, seven days every week. So I left [that competition] going, ‘I can do anything!’”
She added: “I’m so lucky that I was able to go the space, and it wasn’t concerning the winning. I’m lucky that I was able to face challenges and show up on the opposite side of them and learn, find out how to communicate, find out how to show up for a partner, find out how to show up for myself, find out how to have faith in my very own body and movement, find out how to settle down the noise around me and be in a moment that scared the s— out of me.”