Maksim Chmerkovskiy & Peta Murgatroyd Aren’t On Friendly Terms Amid ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Rivalry

Dancing with the Stars professional dancers Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd may be happily married away from the ballroom, but it sounds like their competition on the ABC show may be getting the best of them this season.

The couple – who welcomed their first child, son Shai, in January – recently admitted that the added tension of dancing with fellow married couple Nick and Vanessa Lachey has only added to their normal DWTS rivalry, and it sounds like things are so bad that the couples have vowed not to discuss their rehearsals with one another.

Maksim joked about how the couples’ rivalry is already boiling over after the first show last week and admitted that the group hasn’t been on any double dates since they started rehearsing for the show.

“There’s no dating, there’s no lunching, there’s no dinner,” Chmerkovskiy told Too Fab of his fellow DWTS stars when asked if they’ve been on any double dates. “There’s just kids — if you end up having time in the day — and dance, and that’s it.”

Nick also confirmed that he and Vanessa haven’t been taking their work home with them either in an attempt to keep their rivalry at bay.

“You gotta leave it on the dance floor,” Nick said when asked if he and Vanessa have been trying out their dances with one another at home.

“It wouldn’t really work for [Vanessa] and I to rehearse, plus it would last for about 10 seconds and then one of us would get mad,” he said of keeping his DWTS duties away from home.

The former 98 Degrees singer, who documented his previous marriage to Jessica Simpson on the reality series Newlyweds, also joked that he and his wife of six years are “smart enough” to know that they need to leave the dancing in the rehearsal room and not discuss it at home.

Peta made a similar remark about keeping her distance to Extra after it was noted that Maksim and Vanessa got a higher score than her and Nick during Dancing with the Stars’ Season 25 premiere on September 18.

When asked about seeing Maksim and Vanessa beat them on the leaderboard in the first week, Peta joked of her husband, “I didn’t go home with him that night.”

But while it sounds like both Nick and Vanessa and Maksim and Peta are taking their Dancing with the Stars rivalry pretty seriously this season, it sounds like it’s all in good fun and fans of the couples shouldn’t be too worried about their marriages surviving the season.

Though they may have a friendly rivalry when it comes to the show, Peta and Maksim have been making it clear that they’re actually happier than ever when it comes to their personal life together.

While showing off baby Shai in an adorable professional photo shoot earlier this month, Maksim admitted that he wants more kids with Peta and even revealed that he wished he and his fellow DWTS professional dancer had started their family earlier.

“[Life has changed] in every way possible,” Peta told Entertainment Tonight of how she and her husband’s lives have changed since becoming parents to their 9-month-old son at the beginning of the year.

“We just revolve around him,” Peta continued of herself and Maksim and their doting on little Shai. “Everything revolves around him, from the minute we get up.”

Dancing with the Stars Season 25 airs on ABC on Monday nights.

[Featured Image by Monica Schipper/Getty Images]