• Dancing With the Stars contestant Alix Earle almost earned a perfect score during the Halloween-themed episode on Oct. 28, but guest judge Cheryl Burke scored her a 9 instead of 10.
  • Alix’s stepmom, Ashley Dupré, slammed Cheryl for her decision and body-shamed her in a TikTok video.
  • Cheryl posted a lengthy video in response to Ashley’s comments on Instagram.

Cheryl Burke won’t dance around body-shaming comments targeted against her. The pro dancer recently served as a guest judge for Dancing With the Stars’ Halloween-themed episode, which aired on October 28. During the ep, contestant Alix Earle danced the tango to Billie Eilish’s “bury a friend” with her partner, Val Chmerkovskiy, and nearly earned a perfect score of 40. However, they were only a point short of receiving 10s across the board, as Cheryl gave them a score of 9 for their performance.

dancing with the stars “halloween night” nine couples get into the spooky spirit with eerie makeovers and chilling routines, conjuring up a hauntingly entertaining night. the dance marathon, “dance monster thon,” returns, as well as two time mirrorball champion cheryl burke as guest judge. tuesday, oct. 28 (8:00 10:00 p.m. edt) on abc. (disney/christopher willard) cheryl burke, bruno tonioli, alix earle, valentin chmerkovskiy
Christopher Willard//ABC

As Alix’s stepmom, Ashley Dupré, sat to watch the show with her children, she slammed Cheryl for keeping the Hot Mess podcaster from receiving a perfect score. She body-shamed the dancer in the process, saying, “Oh, go take more Ozempic!” in a TikTok video posted on October 29.

The comment even prompted a confused reaction from her kids, who asked, “Go take more Ozempic?”

Cheryl—who has openly spoken about her health journey and struggles with body dysmorphia in the past—officially responded to Ashley’s comments with a video of her own. In the clip posted to her Instagram profile on October 30, Cheryl defended her scoring choice on DWTS.

“My comments didn’t just come out of nowhere. It came from personal experience. It came from being on this show for 26 seasons, and it also came from all the years of being trained, being coached myself, and 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,” the two-time DWTS winner explained.

She continued, criticizing Ashley for making harmful comments about her appearance in front of her kids. “I know that I did the best that I could with the information that I had and with what I saw in real time,” he said, “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.”

She concluded her message with, “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.”

Neither Ashley nor Alix has weighed in on the situation since Cheryl’s video was posted.