Val Chmerkovskiy has released a statement following his suspension from Dancing With the Stars. News broke earlier today (Saturday, October 17) that Val would be suspended for a week due to the controversial “Oscar Slap” comment he made in response to Carrie Ann Inaba’s critique of Jenna Johnson.
Producer BBC Studios released a statement, telling Deadline “The well-being of everyone who works on Dancing with the Stars is non-negotiable. Val’s social media post was inappropriate and does not reflect the values or standards expected of anyone connected with the show. As a result, he will not participate in next week’s show.”
Val then hopped on Instagram to write, “Hi everyone. As you may have seen in the news, I won’t be in the ballroom this week. In a moment where my instict was to defend my wife, I made a poor decision to reference a meme to ‘keep my wife’s name’ out of the conversation, without stopping to think through what else that reference could impy, which was genuinely never my intention. Carrie Ann certainly didn’t deserve to get caught in the middle of my bad judgement, and I hate that she was.”
He added, “The last thing I want is to become a distraction from an important week or from the incredible work my dance partner Jenna Dewan is putting in. Please send Carrie Ann, Jenna, and the whole DWTS family lots of love during Dedication Night. I’ll be watching and cheering everyone on!”
Val also released an apology last week, saying in part: “I have reached out to Carrie Ann to apologize directly and personally, and I also want to apologize publicly as I understand my words affect so many outside of our internal DWTS family. I should have never made the reference that I did and I deeply regret it.”
Read his full statement below: