Credit: Getty ImagesMeet The Real-Life Partners of the Dancing With the Stars Judges
It’s not unusual for dancers to find love on Dancing With the Stars. But what about the competition’s judges? Who are Dancing With the Stars judges dating and married to in real life? Plus, learn which judge seriously dated a pro dancer back in the day.
DWTS is ABC’s popular dance competition where professional dancers team up with celebrities to win the coveted Mirrorball trophy. The show premiered in 2005 and has aired for 32 seasons. Each week, competitors are eliminated based on public voting and scores received from the judges. Season 32 of DWTS premiered on September 26, 2023, and features the judging trio of Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Derek Hough. (Check out our list of the entire cast and eliminations for Season 32 so far.)
Inaba and Tonioli have judged the dancing competition since the show’s inception in 2005. (They were joined by Len Goodman, who retired last season and passed away in April 2022.) Meanwhile, Hough competed as a pro dancer for 17 seasons before switching over to judging permanently in 2020. Keep reading to learn about the real-life partners of Season 32’s Dancing With the Stars judges.
Derek Hough
Derek Hough’s wife is fellow Dancing With the Stars dancer Hayley Erbert. The couple met in 2014 when Erbert was hired for Derek and Julianne’s Move Live! tour. One year later, the two stars appeared on Dancing With the Stars and they started dating. Erbert was a dancer on the show for seven seasons and four tours. The couple announced their engagement on Instagram in June 2022, then wed over a year later in Monterey County, California, in front of 106 guests.
Fellow DWTS pro dancer Mark Ballas was the best man, while pro dancer Britt Stewart was photographed in the bridal party. Also in attendance were DWTS co-host Alfonso Ribeiro and three of Hough’s former partners: Amy Purdy, Maria Menounos and Shawn Johnson.
Bruno Tonioli
Bruno Tonioli is not married, but it’s reported that the British-Italian choreographer has been in a long-term relationship with Jason Schanne for over a decade. Hollywood Life reported that the pair started dating in 2010 and had a commitment ceremony two years later.
Although Tonioli has chosen to keep their relationship private (including on social media), the couple attended a rare public outing when they walked the red carpet at the Mary Poppins Returns London premiere in 2018.
Carrie Ann Inaba
Longtime DWTS judge Carrie Ann Inaba is reportedly single. She was last seen with Fabien Viteri in 2020, to whom she was engaged. The pair dated for less than one year, and Inaba announced in May 2021 that she was single again.
Prior to Viteri, she was engaged to Jesse Sloan, an accountant whom the judge met through eHarmony. Inaba accepted Sloan’s proposal while filling in for Kelly Ripa on Live! With Regis and Kelly in 2011. Unfortunately, it was confirmed that the wedding was off and their engagement had ended.
Surprise! She also once dated DWTS pro dancer Artem Chigvintsev. The choreographers met on the set of So You Think You Can Dance in 2006. After nearly three years, Inaba and Chigvintsev called it quits, according to Us Weekly.
Chigvintsev ultimately found love on the show with his DWTS partner, WWE wrestler Nikki Bella. Bella and Chigvintsev got engaged in November 2019, had their son in July 2020 and wed in August 2022.
Len Goodman
Late DWTS judge Len Goodman was married to Sue Barrett at the time of his passing. They tied the knot in 2012, a decade after the pair first met at a golf course in 2002. Goodman once told The Daily Mail that Barrett likes to stay out of the public eye. “She likes to stay out of the limelight,” he told the site. “She’s gorgeous and makes me very happy,”
Goodman was previously married to his first wife (and former dance partner), Cherry Kingston, from 1972 to 1987.
Julianne Hough
Throughout Hough’s tenure on DWTS, the current co-host and former pro was also a permanent judge for five seasons of the competition. Hough has been engaged twice and married once. She was briefly married to Brooks Laich, but the pair separated in 2020 and were officially divorced in 2022.
Hough revealed in an interview with Women’s Health in 2019 that she told Laich that she wasn’t straight. “I [told him], ‘You know I’m not straight, right?’ And he was like, ‘I’m sorry, what?’ I was like, ‘I’m not. But I choose to be with you,'” she recalled.
ncG1vNJzZmirn5a9tHrSoZykpp%2BswG%2BvzqZmoJmcobKzxY6dmKebmaO0bsPIrZ9mrJiaerTAwKuqZqKlmbSmv4ydmK2hnpx8