Cheryl Burke has spent years starring as a professional dancer on the reality show “Dancing With The Stars,” and she’s become beloved by fans for her constant positive attitude. That’s why it came as a huge surprise to fans this week when she revealed that she sees her husband Matthew Lawrence as the “first relationship I ever had that did not fit this abusive pattern.”

In a lengthy new YouTube video, Burke admitted that she was “addicted” to dating toxic men. The dancer explained that she lost her virginity to her first boyfriend at age 13, which set her into “a pattern of moving just way too fast.”

“It was something that I did because I felt like I had to, in a way, just to keep a boyfriend,” Burke said of her views on sex in her teenage years and her 20s. On top of that, she said she was abusing herself through alcohol.

“Looking back, I honestly think that the first relationship I ever had that did not fit this abusive pattern was when my now-husband Matt and I dated the first time around back in 2007,” Burke said. “I honestly think at the time when we first dated, I didn’t clearly love myself enough to think that I deserved to be with someone who was actually nice to me. And I was just wrapped up in this new get-out-of-jail-free card, L.A.-party lifestyle, whereas he had already kind of been there and done that, since he grew up in this industry.”

Though Burke and Lawrence initially broke up in 2008, they reunited in 2017 and went on to get married last year. These days, they seem to be going stronger than ever before.

“He is the complete opposite of everything bad about my past relationships,” she gushed of Lawrence. “I think when I look back on this time in my life, I could sit here and say that I wish these things had never happened to me, but I look at it now as every part of my story has helped me to become the woman I am today.”

Burke concluded by saying that she decided to come forward with her story in the hopes of helping others.

“I want to share my experience with all of you, because I hope in turn it could help anyone who may have experienced something similar to know there is hope on the other side,” she said. “I am living proof that where you are in life does not need to be where you are forever.”