Dancing With the Stars has seen plenty of pros come and go over the 30+ seasons, with some lasting for quite a long time and others, not so much. Since there have been a lot of pros over the years, some have found love with one another. However, sometimes when it doesn’t work out personally, it also doesn’t work out with the show. Former pro Damian Whitewood revealed that was the case for him following a breakup with Peta Murgatroyd.
Whitewood was a one-time pro on Dancing With the Stars for Season 10, partnering with former Playboy model and actress Pamela Anderson. The two were eliminated during Week 6, but even then, it seemed like Whitewood would be on the series for a while. Unfortunately, he told former pro Cheryl Burke on her Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans podcast that he wasn’t asked back for Season 11, so he ended up doing the Australian version and other series in the global franchise.
However, when it came time for the all-star season with Anderson in 2012, Whitewood admitted that producers didn’t even ask him back then despite Anderson wanting him on. At the time, Peta Murgatroyd was a pro on Dancing With the Stars, and the two had broken up after five years together. Even though it had been quite some time since their breakup, Whitewood alleges that producers didn’t want to take any risks:
I didn’t get asked to come back for that one, so that was, again, they brought her back and they didn’t bother to ask me back. Obviously, I wasn’t with Peta at the time, so whether they thought then that would have caused friction or [something]? But it doesn’t matter these days, obviously, we see people that are split up and still on the show together.
There have definitely been some breakups on Dancing With the Stars, but it now seems to be on the same wavelength as actors breaking up and still having to work together on a movie. Even worse, having to act like a couple in said show or movie! Since time had passed since the breakup, I like to think that Murgatroyd and Whitewood could have put aside any differences from the past, or at the very least tried. And it’s a disappointment that Whitewood wasn’t given a chance for just one more season.
Whether Damian Whitewood will ever return to the American version of Dancing With the Stars is unknown. He clearly still wanted to come back, regardless of what happened between him and Peta Murgatroyd. Now that Murgatroyd is happily married to fellow pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy and plenty of time has certainly passed, who knows what could happen?
With Dancing With the Stars having no end in sight, it’s always possible. Pros that leave sometimes return, even if just to make brief appearances, which could also happen. It has been far too long since Whitewood was on the series, but fans will just have to wait and see. In the meantime, the show is set to return on the 2024 TV schedule this fall, so it will be exciting to see what pros will be competing for the Len Goodman Mirrorball Trophy.
