'Dancing with the Stars' couple Emma Slater and Alan Bersten were "living in fear"

Dancing with the Stars couple Emma Slater and Alan Bersten have opened up about the viral onstage kiss that hard launched their relationship following Emma's divorce from fellow DWTS pro Sasha Farber.


A source told Us Weekly in October 2024 that Emma and Alan were "hooking up" but their romance was "not new."

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The couple then confirmed their romance in April by sharing a steamy kiss while performing in the last show of the DWTS: Live! 2025 tour.

A Dancing with the Stars audience member posted footage of the shocking moment via TikTok and called Emma and Alan's smooch "the greatest hard launch of all time."


"I think the second we went public, it was like, 'Oh, nothing else matters, who cares what people think?!'" Alan, 31, said during a joint appearance with Emma on the December 2 episode of the "House of Maher" podcast, which is hosted by Olympic rugby player and Alan's former DWTS partner, Ilona Maher.

Emma, 36, admitted she and Alan were "worried about what people were going to think" and so they were "protective" of their relationship and "private" with it for a while.

"And it gets in the way," Emma acknowledged of trying to hide something so important.

Emma shared how Dancing with the Stars pro Britt Stewart helped her come around by offering some solid advice.

"She said to me, 'You're kind of living in fear. You're not really, like, owning your own life because you're worried about what people will say,'" Emma recalled.


"And I listened to her and she was right. The second that we made it public -- the first day was a little bit like, 'I'm not going to go on my phone.' And then it was by far the best thing because we just popped that illusion, which was that everybody hates us."

Emma apparently realized that she never should've thought so negatively, adding, "You can choose to own the life that you're living, and it really helped me a lot."

Ilona revealed that she was actually the mastermind behind Alan and Emma's onstage kiss during the tour.

"I was in the wings and I went up to Alan, I was like, 'Alan, you know what you've got to do? I think on your last night, you've got to kiss Emma,'" Ilona shared, recalling how "beautifully" the couple danced with each other night after night.

Emma admitted she "had no idea" Alan was going to lay one on her until that very day.


Since the pair had kept their romance under wraps for months, Alan recalled asking Emma before the show, "Is it okay if I kiss you?"

Emma clarified, "He did ask, but it was more like, 'I want to kiss you.' And at first, I was like, 'This is a lot to think about! Let me think about it!'"

Alan said he ultimately just followed his instincts and "did it," which resulted in them both feeling a sense of shock and also relief.

"And then we did the next bit of choreography super early," Emma said with a laugh.

"The choreographer is in the audience -- Mandy Moore, who's amazing -- she's in the audience and she's watching, and she, of course, she was happy for the moment, and then I think, we went early, because everybody started screaming, and the adrenaline was going. It was just really funny."


According to Alan, choosing to make his relationship with Emma public made it more "real" for the both of them.

"I think we needed to do that," Alan noted.

"I needed that!" Emma agreed.

Alan concluded, "I want everyone to know that Emma's my girl, and I know she wants everyone to know that I'm her man."

"Definitely," Emma confirmed, before joking, "This alien is mine!"


Dancing with the Stars fans began speculating Emma and Alan were more than just friends when a photo surfaced on X of the pair walking hand-in-hand in Fall 2024.

Prior to getting involved with Alan, Emma had an on-again, off-again relationship with Sasha for more than 10 years.

Emma and Sasha got married in March 2018, and then Emma filed for divorce in February 2023 after four years of marriage.

The blonde beauty cited "irreconcilable differences" as the reason for their split, and she listed April 1, 2022 as the date of her separation from Sasha.

Emma and Sasha finalized their divorce in May 2024.

Emma and Alan both had celebrity partners -- comedian Andy Richter and actress Elaine Hendrix, respectively -- on Dancing with the Stars' 34th season, which wrapped in late November on ABC, but Sasha did not participate this season.


However, all three pro dancers competed on Season 33 in late 2024. At the time, Sasha was rumored to be dating The Bachelorette alum Jenn Tran.

For Alan's part, he previously dated his Dancing with the Stars Season 27 partner Alexis Ren in 2018.

While fans may assume it's difficult for Emma and Sasha to work together and see each other all the time on Dancing with the Stars, Emma assured Us in June 2024 that they've been able to stay "close friends."

She told the magazine at the time, "He's somebody who's in my life forever. It's a true genuine connection and he's the best person, just absolutely amazing. We just get on really, really well."

Emma pointed out how mutual respect is the driving force behind the pair's amicable relationship post-divorce.

But Emma claimed at the time she wasn't ready to put herself back out there and begin dating again.


"I'm still really happy just dating myself, honestly," Emma said, adding how she was focusing on her career.

"I'm in such a good place of not really needing to be with anybody that I'm not worried about it. I'm good."

Emma shared on "The Viall Files" in August 2023 how she and Sasha were "still like family" after their split.

"It isn't even really that the love is not there; it's actually not that at all," Emma said of Sasha.

"We're just potentially in two different places, but the hard part was that the love actually didn't go [away]. We still have that."

Emma told Season 21 The Bachelor star Nick Viall it was "the kid thing" that caused "friction" and broke them up. Emma wasn't ready for a baby, while Sasha allegedly wanted a child as soon as possible.


"It's very interesting because I do want to have kids; I just don't want to delay Sasha's path in having kids, because I think -- well, I know -- that he is ready for that," Emma shared at the time.

She added, "It's not something I take lightly, and I don't want to enter into something that I'm not sure about, because I just would never do that."

Emma also revealed how she planned to keep her next relationship more private.

Emma and Sasha met in 2009 while performing on Broadway's "Burn The Floor" and they began dating in 2011. The pair broke up once before in 2014.

During that 2014 break, Emma told Glamour, "I don't think we're supposed to finish together."

"I think there are other people that might make us both individually happy, but I'm always going to be his best friend," she elaborated. "It has just happened in the way we have gone from a beautiful three-year relationship, which I love and cherish, to best friends."


Emma and Sasha eventually got back together and then Sasha proposed marriage to the blonde beauty in 2016. The former couple tied the knot in a "fairy tale" wedding in Los Angeles two years later.

Speculation the pair had split surfaced in early 2022 when they stopped posting about each other on Instagram.

RELATED LINK: 'DANCING WITH THE STARS' PROS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANT OTHERS: WHO'S DATING OR MARRIED TO WHOM!? (PHOTOS)

And then in August 2022, both Emma and Sasha were spotted without their wedding rings and seemed to be spending a lot of time apart.

A source told Us at the time that the pro dancers had "a tough decision" to make about their future because they had "been together for so long" and "really care" about each other.







About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski