Sharna Burgess is laying it all out. The Dancing With the Stars alum, 40, revealed on Instagram that she struggled for years with binging and restricting, calling her relationship with food “super complicated.”
“I had a super complicated relationship with food as a teen and into my 20s,” Burgess told fans in a candid AMA. The Australian-born dancer traced much of the pressure back to her early training: at 15, her teachers weighed her every two days, telling her weekly whether she needed to lose more. “I certainly wasn’t overweight,” she said, “but it instilled a negative body image that carried on to the way I ate.”
For years, that pattern persisted: binge one day, starve the next. Even into her 20s, she says she saw the 15-year-old on the scale staring back in the mirror.
The turning point came in 2011, when Burgess joined the DWTS cast. Watching celebrities transform, embracing their bodies through movement, shifted her perspective. “I started to see something else in the mirror,” she said. “A body that had gotten me through incredibly difficult times, that had created beautiful moments, that had won championships, that had landed me a life I never thought possible.”
Burgess’ last season on DWTS was 2021, partnered with now-fiancé Brian Austin Green. She stepped away the following year after welcoming their son, Zane—but she hasn’t ruled out a return. “It’s never a no,” she said. “I love the show and am always going to want to be there.”
For Burgess, the story isn’t just about dance. It’s about reclaiming her body, her relationship with food, and her life—on her own terms.
Celebrity Hot Chicks News Television
Last modified: January 20, 2026
