Another One Bites the Dust: Sharna Burgess Announces Exit From ‘Dancing with the Stars’ in Same Week as Lindsay Arnold

Another Dancing with the Stars pro is stepping away from the stage ahead of the competition show’s Disney+ premiere. Sharna Burgess, who has appeared on the show since Season 13, has announced she won’t be returning for Season 31.

The dancer made the announcement on Wednesday (Aug. 31) in a series of Instagram stories seen by ET. 

“I, after long conversations and lots of thinking and really trying to sit with what was right … I have made the really hard decision to not do the season this year of Dancing With the Stars,” Burgess wrote. “There has been a list that was released saying that I would be a pro and I won’t be.”

She explained that while she won’t be competing this season, she will be involved in “some capacity,” adding, “We’re still talking about that.”

The announcement comes two months after Burgess gave birth to son Zane with Beverly Hills, 90210 star Brian Austin Green. The two began dating after a mutual friend set them up in 2020, and were even partnered on Season 30 of DWTS.

Burgess, who said her body is “fit, strong and so ready to dance,” explained that her decision to sit out this season is because she’s not ready to leave her newborn for so many hours a day.

“I was not ready to spend, at minimum, 10 hours a day away from Zane,” she said. “I’m a full-time breastfeeding mama. And not only that, I just am so in love with being a mom. As much as it was hard to say no to Dancing … I have this family and this newborn at home that I may never get these moments back [with].”

She told fans that she’s “been waiting for this for so long” and that she’s going to “live and love every single bit of it.” But rest assured, because it doesn’t mean she won’t be around at all.

“You will see me, but it will just be in a different way,” she confirmed.

Burgess isn’t alone in sitting this season out for her family. Pro dancer Lindsay Arnold also announced this week she wouldn’t be returning to Season 31, saying that she didn’t want to uproot herself and her young daughter, which would mean leaving behind her husband in Utah while she films in Los Angeles.

Dancing with the Stars premieres Sept. 19 on Disney+.