It's been 15 years since Brooke Burke cascaded across the dance floor with partner Derek Hough on "Dancing with the Stars," but the actress and TV personality can still recount the passion she and Derek developed as if it were yesterday.
In a conversation with former "DWTS" pro Cheryl Burke on her podcast "Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans," Burke shared she'd been "crushing on Derek" throughout the season.
"Had I not been married," Burke admitted, "I would have actually hoped we would have had a love affair."
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"I don't think I've ever said that," she continued. "I say that with respect."
At the time, Burke was not actually married, but had two children with David Charvet. The couple would marry in 2011, divorcing in 2020.
Hough married dancer Hayley Erbert this past summer.
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"I would have had an affair with [Derek]," she continued. "But listen, let me tell you why: You are intertwined with someone's body when you are not a dancer. There is no way that I have ever been so connected – besides with a lover or a husband – than I was with Derek. And it's every single day…. So for three months, you are in someone's arms. Why do you think people fall in love? You smell them, you feel them, you're breathing with them."
"It can be more intimate than making love in a bedroom – you're like making love on a dance floor, if you're really connected. Like, if you have energy, you're doing this dance and you're in the rhythm, and then there's trust, then you're sharing fear, you're doing something you've never done. How many times do you… go through an experience with someone where they're all you've got?" she questioned.
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Things were not always sensual and harmonious for Burke and Hough, though. The actress says when she first began working with Hough on "Dancing with the Stars," she thought "he was so young and green and safe."
"I had no idea he would be such a powerful, badass choreographer," she said.
But their chemistry was originally not palpable.
"We just weren't connected. We weren't gelling. We were having issues… off camera in rehearsals. He was exhausted, he was recording an album at night. I had a 3-month-old baby. I was fried – up all night, training all day…. I was a woman and a mother, I felt like he was a young man," she shared of their obstacles.
"We just – we weren't meeting each other in a place that was serving us, so we went to sort of this life-coach therapy session."
The therapy, which was organized by the show, is something Burke says she's surprised never made it to air. The couple worked on their trust and their honesty, ultimately changing the trajectory of their relationship.
Burke says it was even apparent to her partner at the time, Charvet, that she and Hough needed to work things out.
"David was like, 'You need to go and talk to Derek, you guys need to get out of your funk, you need to go connect before a performance.' Because we were completely disconnected. We were in our own world, and yet we were a partnership, we were a team… and yet we weren't behaving like teammates."
Burke and Derek would go on to win the Mirror Ball Trophy that year.
A representative for Hough did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for comment.
"Dancing with the Stars" is currently airing its 32nd season
