It turns out NFL star Chad Ochocinco (or Johnson, depending on the weather…) and professional dancer Cheryl Burke were doing more than just the Paso Doble behind closed doors when the sportsman hoofed it on the 10th season of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars last spring.
The two-time DWTS champ blows the lid off her self-described “fling” with Chad in her memoir, Dancing Lessons: How I Found Passion and Potential on the Dance Floor, and in Life.
“We had a little bit of a fling,” the 25-year-old tells USA TODAY. “We didn’t date. I wouldn’t call that dating. We maybe had a little bit of a fling. I wouldn’t take it to that word dating.”
The pair first set tongues wagging with romance rumors when Ochocinco presented his pro partner (Hint, Nudge, Wink…) with a $100,000 diamond sparkler for “training” him. The gossip died down of course after Chad went on to star in the VH1 dating show The Ultimate Catch. According to Cheryl, while she would have liked a more — er — conventional arrangement with Chad, his serious case of Playboyitis got in the way.
“He was never really available to me. I’ve had that pattern of dating unavailable men in my life and it was hard to resist, obviously, but it was still something I knew from other relationships.”
These days, Cheryl’s basking in Singledom. She’s been testosterone-free for nearly a year. Chad, on the other hand, is engaged to wed Latina reality star Evelyn Lozado, of Basketball Wives fame. Interestingly enough, Ochocinco’s allegedly been cheating on her with a Philadelphia woman who claims she’s expecting his baby.
