Cheryl Burke is mourning the death of her father, Steve Burke. The longtime Dancing With the Stars pro dancer shared the sad news of her 67-year-old father’s death on social media less than a week after she revealed she was going through “some personal things” in her life.
Last week, Cheryl Burke took to Instagram to tell fans that she would be taking a break from social media for a little while, and many concerned followers wondered what was going on with her. In her original post, the two-time Dancing With the Stars mirrorball champion reminded fans to tell the important people in their lives how much they love them each and every day. That gave a clue that the personal issues had something to do with someone important in Cheryl’s life.
Now, Cheryl Burke is revealing the sad reason behind her cryptic post. Cheryl posted a throwback Instagram photo of herself as hugging her dad as he kissed the top of her head. Cheryl captioned the sweet photo with: “Dad, if I had one more chance to have you here with me today, I would do things differently. Every day I would tell you how much I love you. I miss you so much already. Rest In Peace Stephen Louis Burke April 13, 1950 – March 9, 2018.”
You can see Cheryl Burke’s emotional Instagram tribute to her late father below.
Cheryl Burke has not said a lot about her father in past interviews and she did not elaborate on his cause of death. According to People , Cheryl’s dad Steve moved to Thailand when she was a young child and her mother, Sherri, remarried. Burke also told the magazine that her parents’ divorce was one of her earliest challenges in life.
Cheryl was just a toddler when her mom Sherri, a nurse and entrepreneur from the Philippines, split from her father, Stephen, a lawyer from New York City.
“I felt so abandoned,” Cheryl later said of her parents’ divorce.
In 1993, Cheryl’s mom remarried and the future pro dancer forged a close bond with her stepfather, Bob Wolf. Cheryl went on to call her stepfather “Dad” and she has credited him for getting her started in her career as a dancer.
“My mom is Filipino and my dad is half Russian and half Irish,” Burke told SFGate of her biological parents. “My mom and dad divorced, but my stepdad — who’s just amazing — wanted to get into dancing with my mom just for fun. I started taking lessons just to see if I liked it, but then I really wanted to take it seriously, so at the age of 13 I started competing.”
Although he moved away and did not raise her on a full-time basis, Cheryl Burke seems to have had a strong bond with her dad Steve Burke. Cheryl’s heartbreaking tribute to her biological father makes it clear she had a loving relationship with him and that she already misses him very much.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSIjbJdSJE0
