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Jenna Dewan’s fiancé has spoken out about her chemistry with Dancing With the Stars partner Val Chmerkovskiy after fans called out her behavior on this week’s episode.
Dewan and Kazee have been together since 2018 and engaged since 2020. They share two children, a son and a daughter. Chmerkovskiy, meanwhile, has been married to fellow DWTS pro Jenna Johnson since 2019, and they share a son.
On this week’s Mariah Carey-themed episode of the ABC reality competition series, Dewan and Chmerkovskiy danced a rumba to the singer’s “My All,” earning the duo a 24 out of 30 from the judges.
Afterwards, a blogger shared a clip from the episode on Instagram, suggesting Dewan had been “a bit too touchy” with Chmerkovskiy in their post-dance interview.
“They don’t have chemistry. They have too much chemistry. They have chemistry in the wrong place. Make up your minds,” Kazee commented on the post.
“Y’all really got too much time on your hands. The spouses are unbothered. Stay hatin.”
Kazee then commented again, cementing his support of his spouse: “Also put some respect on my queens name and at least pronounce her name correctly when you try to slander her.”
The video gained enough traction that DWTS judge Carrie Ann Inaba also weighed in, writing: “Dancers are physical beings. This is like the way we say hello. Don’t try to turn it into something it is not. Have some respect for both Jenna and Val and their partners please.”
Inaba previously defended Dewan’s casting on season 35 of the long-running series after fans were critical of her experience as a professional dancer.
The judge told Entertainment Weekly that ballroom is very different from the celebrity’s past training.
“What’s difficult — and I don’t think people realize this — is when you go from being a jazz dancer or a hip-hop dancer or all the other forms of dancing [to ballroom], the weight placement is so different,” Inaba explained.
“It’s weird because your body has memory, so it remembers how to dance, and it thinks it already knows how to do these moves, but it doesn’t. It takes a lot of time to un-train the body to put your weight on the front more over your toes instead of back and down and grounded.”
“It’s not as easy as people think,” Inaba added.
Dewan, 45, started her career as a backup dancer on Janet Jackson’s 2001 “All for You Tour” before landing featured roles in music videos for Christina Aguilera, Pink, Missy Elliott and NSYNC, among others. She famously performed alongside Channing Tatum — to whom she was married from 2009 until their divorce was finalized in 2024 — in the 2006 dance movie Step Up.
She went on to host Jennifer Lopez’s dance competition show World of Dance and also served as a judge on the 2022 CBS series Come Dance With Me.
Dewan and Chmerkovskiy were sent through to the next round and will return for DWTS week five, airing Tuesday night.
