Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Vanessa Lachey are moving on from their behind-the-scenes drama. The Dancing With the Stars partners reunited on the Monday, October 9, episode — and their headline-making feud went unmentioned.
“Everything with Maks and Vanessa seemed back to normal this week and no one was talking about it,” a source exclusively tells Us Weekly. “It’s like it didn’t happen.”
The Ukrainian pro dancer, 37, and the former Total Request Live cohost, 36, wowed the judges on Monday night with an emotional rumba in tribute to her 9-month-old son, Phoenix, who was born prematurely last December. “That’s the beauty of dance. You feel it,” a visibly emotional Lachey said after the performance. “It’s a beautiful week for all of us here. We put our hearts in these dances. That was for my family and I’m so proud of it.”
Chmerkovskiy was also overwhelmed by emotion. “We have a hard job getting these people ready for this emotional week,” he told DWTS cohost Tom Bergeron. “We are people too. This got me completely out of my keel. I never cried before [a dance].”
Us Weekly exclusively revealed last week that the stars’ partnership was “not going well” away from the ballroom. “They’re playing nice for the cameras but both are miserable paired with each other,” a source told Us. The choreographer skipped the October 2 episode of the ABC dance competition amid the drama due to an undisclosed “personal issue,” though he publicly apologized to his partner two days later. “I take full responsibility for my absence and want to apologize to my partner Vanessa,” he tweeted.
Since then, their feud has been “water under the bridge,” a source exclusively told Us last week. “Things are returning to normal. Maks has apologized to her and they both look forward to having a much more positive relationship moving forward.”
Meanwhile, Chmerkovskiy’s wife, Peta Murgatroyd, and Lachey’s husband, Nick Lachey, have been getting along since the beginning of their DWTS partnership. “Nick and Peta are totally fine,” a source previously told Us. “Nick is awesome. He’s very laid back and sweet. Peta just goes with the flow, she’s easy.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
