Cheryl Burke opened up about how an imbalance in finances contributed to her divorce from Matthew Lawrence.
During the Thursday, October 24, episode of the “I Do Part 2” podcast, Burke, 40, recalled what led to her and Lawrence, 44, parting ways.
“I was just at the height of the success of Dancing With the Stars. We were on tour, we did two seasons a year and two tours a year. So I was just working all around the clock and barely had a day off,” she explained. “I guess he wasn’t necessarily working at the time — as much. He was working, but not as much.”
Burke noted that she was aware of what she “was getting into financially” with Lawrence.
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“I kind of knew what I was getting into. That’s just my personality. I am never going to not make money. That comes from my mother, who is a rags to riches story. I’ve seen her hustle and was raised with her hustle,” she continued. “That’s who I am, ultimately. I am actually proud of that. There’s no shame with that, for sure.”
Burke and Lawrence’s financial differences, however, took “a toll” on their relationship. “I knew what I was marrying. I knew what I was getting into financially,” Burke shared. “I’m not going to speak for him. I’m not here to bad mouth him whatsoever. But I believe that there is this gender role.”
She continued: “A man may feel a little emasculated when he doesn’t make the majority of the money. I think that may have taken a toll.”
Later in the episode, Burke admitted the pair’s problems with money started when she asked for a prenup before they got married.
“It was an ultimatum. It was a full-on ultimatum,” she said. “It consisted of, like, 70 to 85 pages of lots of words and lots of fine detail and fine print. But something that my attorney suggested was to make sure I hire him an attorney as well. So that was definitely part of the deal.”
Burke wouldn’t budge about her and Lawrence signing the paperwork. “It raised a lot of concerns, especially on his behalf. But there was really not much to do,” she noted. “Either we do this and we get married or we don’t. It’s pretty black and white.”
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While reflecting on their relationship, Burke admitted she avoided “a lot of red flags” leading up to their wedding day.
“Selfishly, I wanted to see if I could get married. I don’t know if I was ready either and [the wedding] was like a production,” she shared. “There [were] just so many red flags.”
Burke started dating Matthew in 2007 when his older brother, Joey Lawrence, appeared as a contestant on season 3 of Dancing With the Stars. One year later, Burke and Matthew called it quits, but they eventually rekindled their romance in 2017.
The pair got married in 2019, three years before Burke officially filed for divorce.
“If I’m being honest, really feeling my feelings is new to me,” Burke wrote via Instagram in March 2022, noting that she felt emotionally “numb” most of her life. “There’s the obvious reason it’s hard — that the emotions I’m experiencing right now are complicated and aren’t exactly happy.”
Burke continued: “But the less obvious reason is that I’m realizing I have a tendency to judge my own feelings and if I’m with other people, that magnifies. I get so focused on other people’s perception of how I’m dealing with my emotions — which then in turn leads me to question if I am feeling things the ‘right way.’”
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Burke exclusively opened up to Us Weekly two months later about how she was working on herself before getting back into dating.
“I need to believe and love myself enough to really know that I deserve a good guy,” she said in May 2022. “This is just untraining my brain. I need to not be like, ‘Why do I attract certain men?’ Versus, like, ‘Why do certain men disgust me?’ It’s being proactive in trying to stay present and conscious and know my self-worth. And a lot of that is still in the works.”
Matthew, meanwhile, moved on with TLC’s Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas in 2023. He later said he was excited to take the next step with his girlfriend.
“That’s the game plan [to have kids]. That’s what we’re trying to do,” the actor revealed to Entertainment Tonight in March 2023. “My life is in complete bloom right now. I get to spend time with an amazing woman like Chilli. I’ve never gotten to be able to experience that kind of relationship before. She’s really, really special.”
Matthew clarified that he didn’t mean to put “pressure” on the singer, 53, telling E! News that same month, “[My brother] Joe and I were commiserating about this plan that we had to have children together … when we were growing up. And I missed the first go-around and now he’s starting a new family and I was thinking, ‘Man, it’d be great if we could do it again, when I didn’t have the chance to raise a family together.’ So that’s what I meant by that.”
Us Weekly has reached out for comment.
