Cheryl Burke
David Becker/Getty Images for iHeartRadioWhen Cheryl Burke was 9, she testified in court against a guardian who sexually abused her and her stepmother.
ex Dancing With the Stars pro recalled the traumatic experience on the Monday, January 20 episode of the series Old-ish podcast.
“Both of us were being sexually harassed by the same person, the caretaker who was looking after us,” Burke, 40, said. “And then it was my sister’s best friend who ran home and told her mother. It was the reason why he was sentenced – it was supposed to be life imprisonment, but it turned out.”
During his trial, “I was almost gassing myself,” she continued. “I will never forget when I was testifying with this man sitting in front of me. They didn’t even let my mom come with me, which was so crazy. I was 9 years old. And I thought to myself, ‘Am I doing this?’ I was literally saying that to myself.”
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Burke added: “I already felt, at the age of 9, like I was a pedophile. That’s how they made me feel.”
She explained during it Old-ish it appears that she is a “professional dissociator” as a result of her past trauma, which she is trying to make peace with.
“There’s no, ‘OK, I’m done with that part of my life,'” Burke said. “But I’ve done so much work that I couldn’t deal with the anger I had for this one person, it felt like I was slowly dying, so some kind of peacemaking had to happen. Not condoning the act by any means, but I had to kind of create, like, “OK, this man was sick.”
However, she noted, “I’m not forgiving. I don’t want people to take this the wrong way, like I’m condoning bullying.”
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Burke has previously spoken about the abuse she endured as a child, initially in 2015 and later discussing how the ordeal had gone affected her relationships with men as an adult.
She thinks that in the future it will be more difficult for other victims to speak out against their abusers.
“It’s society today, man,” Burke told him Old-ishadding, “Why would anyone ever want to come out and speak their truth when the person who is the victim feels like they are doing something wrong? And it’s so easy to gaslight someone and all this statute of limitations. It’s all bull—because it takes decades, if not lifetimes, to finally realize or have some sort of awareness that, “Yeah, maybe I was raped.”
She added: “There were no quick fixes for any of this. There is none. And I don’t even want to come across it in any way. There is no cure. There are no mushrooms. Trust me, I’ve tried them all. And it just comes back tenfold if you don’t do the work, and boy does it hurt. It is painful. This work is painful.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
