Dancing With the Stars (DWTS) professional dancers Sasha and Emma went through a recent divorce to the shock of many.
Sasha Farber and Emma Slater are both DWTS veterans. Farber boasts appearances in 12 seasons of the series while Slater is on her 16th season.
Both are part of the cast of DWTS Season 33 as fans see Farber taking the floor alongside The Bachelorette star Jenn Tran and Slater showing off her moves next to Die Hard actor Reginald VelJohnson.
Why Did DWTS' Sasha Farber & Emma Slater Divorce?
People first reported in August 2022 that Dancing with the Stars' Sasha Farber and Emma Slater had divorced from one another. However, the separation was dated April 1, 2022, meaning it had been filed four months before it went public.
Another report from People in February 2023 confirmed the divorce had been filed and made official, legally separating the dancer pair.
Thankfully, a source close to the outlet noted that the two "still remain close" and that they have "no bad blood between them."
As for the reasoning behind the split, Slater told the Viall Files podcast (via E! Online) in August that their core conflict was over whether they wanted to have children. While she wanted to have kids, it appeared that Farber was ready to be a parent sooner than she was:
"It's really the kid thing. It's interesting because I do want to have kids, I just don't want to delay Sasha's path in having kids because I know that he is ready for that. I don't want to talk about him too much because that's really for him to say, but it's about kids."
She also admitted to feeling a "resistance in life" near the end of their relationship, as she worked to figure out when she wanted to start a family and what she wanted out of life.
In the end, it mostly had to do with her feelings and finding it "difficult to understand why [she was] feeling different:"
"So, that's been the real friction and the real hard part. It had nothing to do with him. He's always been very much himself. It's me that's found it difficult to understand why I'm feeling different."
In May 2024, Slater further elaborated on the split, telling People that she "couldn't be happier" with the decision to spend more time alone.
She has been spending time traveling by herself, calling it "the most rewarding thing that [she's] done" in the time since her divorce:
“I’ve been traveling a little bit. It’s a bit of a cliché thing to say, but spending time by myself has been the most rewarding thing that I’ve done in the last few months."
Following a live tour with the Dancing with the Stars cast, she spent quality time by herself and explained how it "helped [her] so much," even though she forced herself to make that move:
"'Dancing with the Stars' just wrapped a tour a little over a month ago, and since then I've spent some really good quality time by myself, and I haven't done that in years. It has really helped me so much, and I was petrified about doing that to begin with, but I forced myself to do it."
"I'm truly dating myself," Slater said about her current love life, which she is thoroughly enjoying.
Additionally, per court documents acquired by Us Weekly, Slater and Farber had a written agreement that confirmed neither of them would receive any kind of support from one another in the divorce.
New episodes of Dancing with the Stars Season 33 debut on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and Disney+, and episodes arrive on Hulu the next day.
