Cheryl Burke apologizes to Ian Ziering for 'nasty' 'Dancing With the Stars' comments

Cheryl Burke wants to clear the air with Ian Ziering.

"The one thing I truly regret and want to make amends with is Ian Ziering," she told co-host AJ McLean on their “Pretty Messed Up” podcast last weekend.

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"I was completely out of line a few years ago, and I did a podcast where they were asking me who my favorite partner was and who did I hate the most. And I answered Ian Ziering. And I said something along the lines of, 'I'd rather slit my wrists than dance with Ian Ziering again.' I would say there’s no excuse, no matter if it was a joke or not.”

The duo finished in fourth place on “Dancing With the Stars” during the show’s fourth season, the third time Burke appeared on it. She made her comments about Ziering on an episode of the “Allegedly” podcast in 2016.

“I know it hurt him and I know it hurt him and his family and it was a big deal,” she said.

“And people still continue to ask me the same question, like, wanting me to answer it the same way. And I’m here to say sorry. I truly am so sorry for being so inconsiderate and just talking, trying to, basically, get a reaction and putting him as my punching bag, really.”

Burke, 36, says it’s already hard enough for someone to compete on the show without her making it more difficult.

“At the end of the day, when someone does ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ especially a celebrity, they are already going on the show being vulnerable and just because maybe I don’t necessarily, we don’t get along for a couple days, I just took it to that next level of nastiness and I was so nasty,” she said. “And I'm here to publicly apologize to Ian and his family.”

“I lost a lot of respect for myself when I said that. It haunts me to this day,” she added.

Burke, who echoed her regrets in a video on her YouTube page, has not reached out to the “Sharknado” star.

“I haven’t had the courage,” she said.

McLean encouraged her to do so.

“I would pick up the phone. I would call him and just say, ‘There’s something I’ve been wanting to tell you in person.' And I’ll tell you, here’s the trick. You cannot do it with expectations of how he’s going to respond. You’re not doing it for that reason. You do it because it’s the right thing to do.”