Matthew Lawrence opens up about navigating his public divorce from Dancing with the Stars alum Cheryl Burke nearly three years after their split.
The Boy Meets World star told the Daily Mail in an interview published Thursday that dealing with personal issues in the spotlight isn’t easy for anyone.
“That’s one of the interesting things about when you choose to be in a career like this is that your private life is public, so you have to live those things out on a public stage. And I don’t think that’s really fun for anybody, you know?”
Lawrence, 45, has stayed quiet about his divorce until now.
He explained that losing control of the story was the hardest part.
“Especially when you don’t really have control of the narrative, or if the narrative isn’t even true, you kind of just have to say, ‘Well, I’m going to have to just go on with my life and continue to live the life I want to live. And the people that I care about know what’s real and what’s not. And, you just have to grow thick skin and continue on.”
Burke filed for divorce in 2022 after nearly three years of marriage.
The professional dancer, 41, later shared her own struggles with the split during a February 2023 podcast appearance on I Do, Part Two with Jana Kramer. She admitted questioning herself initially.
“I think naturally, my brain went to, yeah – what did I do wrong? Did I not sleep with him enough? There’s all these questions that I ask myself. Was I not there emotionally?”
But Burke concluded the issues weren’t about her.
“But ultimately, intellectually, I know, of course, it has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with that person.”
More than a year later, Burke told PEOPLE that finalizing the divorce felt “really healing.” She said her single era “couldn’t have happened at a better time.”
“I think I definitely have a lot of growing and evolving to do, and now…I have the time to really do that without the anxiety of a timeline.”
Lawrence moved on with TLC’s Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas in January 2023.
PEOPLE confirmed their relationship at the time. Lawrence said his life was in “complete bloom” with the new romance.
The couple now co-hosts Hallmark+’s unscripted series Second Chance Love. The show gives five couples the chance to reconnect in Sardinia, Italy.
Working together came naturally for the pair.
“It is interesting when you work with family, a loved one in that regard, but I had no doubts that we were going to be just fine because of the way we handle our personal life,”
Lawrence told PEOPLE.
“There’s nothing but love and respect, so I was not worried at all, and I think it went off pretty darn good.”
Chilli, 54, agreed that their professional partnership flows smoothly.
“It’s funny that we can work together and everything just flows naturally,”
she said, with Lawrence calling it “a great experience.”
