Former “Dancing With the Stars” pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy has been accused of throwing a can of coke at a former cast member. Melanie Mills spoke about the incident on the May 20 episode of the “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans” podcast. Mills served as the show’s lead makeup artist for several years.
On season 11, Mills said that she was trying to apply a lip look to Chmerkovskiy’s partner, Brandy Norwood. However, the ballroom pro wanted to rehearse with her backstage. After a bit of back and forth, Mills let Norwood go with Chmerkovskiy. But Norwood returned to the makeup chair soon after to allow Mills to finish.
“Right before she’s done, she’s getting up, she stands up, he has a full coke and he throws it at me,” Mills said. “And he misses… he missed my… I’m not even kidding you. It was a closed full coke can that he threw right at me and it missed my head like this,” she explained. Mills said a camera guy caught the whole thing on tape.
A rep for Chmerkovskiy tells Heavy that the whole thing “never happened.”
Mills is an Emmy-award winning makeup artist. She was with “Dancing With the Stars” from its early years through season 12.
Chmerkovskiy and Norwood finished the season in fourth place.
Melanie Mills Claims She Got in Trouble Over the Incident
As it turns out, Mills claims that production spoke with her about the incident and “took Maks’ side.”
“I got called into the producer’s office, like a fricking school girl, but it was really intense,” she told Burke on “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans.” She said that she couldn’t stop crying — and even though everything was on camera, she was treated like the incident was her fault.
“I literally cannot remember except they literally brought me to tears as if I’m the one that like completely instigated the whole thing,” Mills said, adding that she was lucky not to be fired.
“I was so upset with them all because I was just like. First of all, why am I like being bullied by like 15 people in this room in this like insanely intense conversation? And how about the fact that he almost hit me in the head with a full Coke and it’s all on camera? Oh no, no, oh no, no. It was all me girl,” she continued.
Fans Reacted to Melanie Mills’ Story About Maks Chmerkovskiy on Reddit
After the podcast went live, some “Dancing With the Stars” fans took to Reddit to respond to Mills’ story.
“NGL… I am not surprised, but I AM disgusted… so tired of men getting away with this just because they are rich and popular,” one person wrote on a thread about the incident.
“Pretty disgusting that the show enabled a male pro’s violent behavior, catered to him, and coddled him — yet they black ball Cheryl because her podcast guests spill the show’s drama? So misogynistic,” someone else added.
“Maks is a terrible person and its been evident forever. Not sure why so many people have pretended otherwise / defended him over the years. And the more I hear about his anger issues, the more I hope Peta and his relationship is as good as they say it is. As much as she had to say about the Will Smith slap, her husband is the one who has a long history of being aggressive to women,” a third comment read.
“Am I surprised? No. Am I surprised the show supported Maks’ abuse? Double no. This is beyond sad. I never was a fan of him and the fam, because I saw right through their shtick. What makes it sad is that abusers are supported while there’s more talented and genuine dancers that could have taken over. But it was worth keeping him for the views, right?” a fourth Redditor wondered.
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