Dancing With The Stars' professional dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy appears to have some explaining to do following the claims made by former DWTS contestant and US Olympic goalkeeper that he was violent towards her.
Having documented what happened with Maksim during her time on the show, Entertainment Weekly reports Hope saying in an extract of her book, Solo: A Memoir of Hope that Chmerkovskiy slapped her "across the face. Hard" because he wanted her head in a specific position, she then went onto explain that the professional dancer “was extremely apologetic."
However, USA Today's LifeLine Live reports Solo of accusing Maksim of more violence. Claiming that he "whacked" her in the stomach, another extract from Hope's memoir reportedly reads:
"He was often nasty. Swearing at me and being harshly critical... I didn't like being treated like that, but I could take it. He manhandled me in rehearsals from the start, pushing me, whacking my stomach, bending my arms roughly. I thought that was just how it went – how dancers worked with each other. I was tough. I could take it.
"But it kept getting worse. One day, Maks was trying to put me in a certain position and hit my stomach so hard with his open palm that I had a red handprint there for the rest of the day."
Having documented how her rehearsals went with Maksim, Hope continued: "Maks was rough and mean with me, flinging me and pushing me around. I could see the shocked looks on the faces of the other dances. So maybe this isn't normal behavior, I thought."
The goalkeeper then went on to explain that although ABC offered her a new partner after the incident, she refused because she "didn't want to end Maks' career."
Appearing to deny the accusations about him, Chmerkovskiy cryptically tweeted yesterday:
"Always hated hypocrites and liars...but when someone is both AND an opportunist, I just feel bad for them. Can't win at someone's expense.." before tweeting later: "Life's best lessons are the ones that you smile through.....while they hurt you the most! I'm bullet proof....FIRE AWAY!"
Maksim's rep has been approached for comment.
2012 Dancing With the Stars Final
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