“In a moment where my instinct 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 imply, which was genuinely never my intention. Carrie Ann certainly didn’t deserve to get caught in the middle of my bad judgment, and I hate that she was.”

Val Chmerkovskiy · said date not stated · reported 2026-10-21

Chmerkovskiy released a statement addressing his hiatus from the ballroom following his one-episode suspension.