Matthew Lawrence Addresses Divorce from Cheryl Burke, Says He Had to 'Grow a Thick Skin'
- - Matthew Lawrence Addresses Divorce from Cheryl Burke, Says He Had to 'Grow a Thick Skin'
Charlotte PhillippJanuary 3, 2026 at 3:46 AM
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Vivien Killilea/Getty; Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock
Matthew Lawrence; Cheryl Burke. -
Matthew Lawrence is getting candid about dealing with a divorce while in the public eye
"When you don't really have control of the narrative or if the narrative isn't even true, you kind of just have to say, 'Well, I'm going to have to just go on with my life,' " he told Daily Mail
Dancing with the Stars alum Cheryl Burke, 41, filed for divorce from Lawrence in 2022 after nearly three years of marriage
Matthew Lawrence is getting candid about dealing with a divorce while in the public eye, nearly three years after his split from ex-wife Cheryl Burke.
Speaking with the Daily Mail for an interview published on Thursday, Jan. 1, the Boy Meets World alum, 45, spoke about how it feels to have his romantic life so highly publicized as a public figure.
"That's one of the interesting things about when you choose to be in a career like this is that your private life is public, so you have to live those things out on a public stage," Lawrence said. "And I don’t think that’s really fun for anybody, you know?"
Lawrence, who has refrained from speaking publicly about his split from Burke in the years since, added that it was difficult to deal with the ways that others interpreted the situation.
"Especially when you don't really have control of the narrative, or if the narrative isn't even true, you kind of just have to say, 'Well, I'm going to have to just go on with my life and continue to live the life I want to live. And the people that I care about know what's real and what’s not,' " he continued. "And, you just have to grow thick skin and continue on."
Vivien Killilea/Getty
Matthew Lawrence on Nov. 20, 2025.
Dancing with the Stars alum Burke, 41, filed for divorce from Lawrence in 2022 after nearly three years of marriage.
In February 2023, she shared during an interview on the I Do, Part Two podcast with Jana Kramer that she questioned if she had done something wrong during their split — but has since concluded that she needed to put herself first for the "first time" in her life.
Despite knowing better, Burke said, "I think naturally, my brain went to, yeah — what did I do wrong? Did I not sleep with him enough? There's all these questions that I ask myself. Was I not there emotionally?"
"But ultimately, intellectually, I know, of course, it has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with that person."
More than a year after she filed, Burke told PEOPLE that finalizing the split was "really healing" as she shifted her focus to her single era, which she said "couldn't have happened at a better time."
"I think I definitely have a lot of growing and evolving to do, and now...I have the time to really do that without the anxiety of a timeline," she said.
"I feel at peace, at ease and I'm just excited. I feel like I've been a reborn human being here on this planet because it's so many changes, right? My career, my personal life."
Lawrence began dating TLC's Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas in January 2023, PEOPLE confirmed at the time, and for his part, said that his life was in "complete bloom" amidst the new relationship.
Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty
Matthew Lawrence, Rozonda "Chili" Thomas at Entertainment Weekly's Annual Comic-Con Bash on July 26.
The couple is now co-hosting Hallmark+'s new unscripted series Second Chance Love, which gives five couples the opportunity to reconnect in Sardinia, Italy.
The pair were certain they could hack it as colleagues. "It is interesting when you work with family, a loved one in that regard, but I had no doubts that we were going to be just fine because of the way we handle our personal life," Lawrence told PEOPLE.
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"There's nothing but love and respect, so I was not worried at all, and I think it went off pretty darn good."
"It's funny that we can work together and everything just flows naturally," adds Chilli, 54, with Matthew calling it "a great experience."
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
