Each year devoted fans of Dancing With The Stars eagerly await who the cast of characters will be for the upcoming season of competition.
On Thursday, Peta Murgatroyd put the mystery surrounding her pending status to rest when she made her official announcement in an Instagram Live hit as it was revealed fellow pro Artem Chigvintsev will not be returning amid his domestic violence arrest.
‘In terms of me, Dancing With The Stars, guys, I’m sorry, it’s not this season,’ the dance pro, 38, revealed while taking questions from her 1.1 million Instagram fans and followers. ‘It’s just too soon.’
By ‘too soon’ Murgatroyd referring to the fact that she only just gave birth to her third child with husband and former DWTS dance pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy just over a month ago.
Milan Maksim Chmerkovskiy made his arrival to Planet Earth on July 12, which is only about six weeks for her body to start recovering from the transformation of having a child.
Peta Murgatroyd, 38, announced her decision to step down as a dance pro cast member for the upcoming season 33 of Dancing With The Stars
In fact, the mom of three nearly had back-to-back pregnancies considering she gave birth to the couple’s second child, son Rio, in June 2023.
‘The babies are amazing. I cannot believe I have three. That is an honest statement where I never thought this would happen to me,’ she shared during the Q-and-A with fans.
‘So having three of my own biological children, all natural, after we went through IVF,’ she explained. ‘Just waiting for two-and-a half years of absolute s**t to be quite honest. I feel so blessed. Life is good.’
It’s been a long road to get here and it’s just amazing at hoe everything has just panned out, so to speak
That long road for Murgatroyd and her husband was largely due to their pregnancy struggles after their first-born.
The couple first welcomed son Shai Aleksander Chmerkovskiy in January 2017, which was six months before they tied-the-knot at Oheka Castle in Long Island, New York.
Wanting to grow their family more, they tried to conceive the old fashioned way but sadly that resulted in her having three miscarriages between 2020 and 2021.
While they ended up turning to in vitro fertilization process in hopes of conceiving a second child, in the end they were blessed with two more children without the help of IVF.
‘In terms of me, Dancing With The Stars, guys, I’m sorry, it’s not this season,’ the Auckland, New Zealand native revealed in Instagram Live. ‘It’s just too soon,’ in a reference to her newborn baby boy
The mom of three nearly had back-to-back pregnancies considering she gave birth to the couple’s second child, son Rio, in June 2023, followed by Milan in July 2024
The Burn The Floor star joined the cast of Dancing with The Stars back in 2011 as a member of the dance troupe in season 12.
She would become a regular member of the professional cast the following year ahead of season 13.
In just her third season on the show she was teamed up with former NFL player Donald Driver, and the duo proceeded to go on and win the Mirrorball Trophy in season 14.
By mentioning that it was ‘too soon’ to return to DWTS, Murgatroyd was referring to the fact that she only just gave birth to her third child with husband and former DWTS dance pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy on July 12
The couple have seen their family grow from three to five between 2017 and 2024
Chmerkovskiy, 44, competed as a professional dancer on the competition reality show for 15 seasons, who was often referred to as ‘the bad boy of the ballroom’; he’s pictured with the late Kirstie Alley
Murgatroyd won a second title in 2016 when she was partnered with model Nyle DiMarco for season 22.
She last competed in this past season 32 when she was matched up with Brady Bunch actor Barry Williams, who lasted all the way to being the right elimination.
In all, the Latin dance expert took part in 15 seasons of DWTS since 2011, with five seasons off from the show in between, which was partly due to her pregnancies.
Chmerkovskiy, 44, competed as a professional dancer on the competition reality show for 15 seasons, who was often referred to as ‘the bad boy of the ballroom.’
The Odesa, Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine) native announced that he was officially done as a DWTS pro in April 2018.