Emma Slater and Mauricio Umansky. Getty Images (2)
Dancing With the Stars pro Emma Slater thinks she will always have former partner Mauricio Umansky in her corner.
“I really think that Mauricio is someone who’s going to be in my life forever,” Slater, 35, exclusively told Us Weekly on Friday, May 10, at the Race to Erase MS Gala at the Fairmont Century Plaza. “We really do click. We sort of went through difficult times at the same time together and were each other’s confidants. It was a really nice season. Difficult for both of us, but we’re really really grateful that we had each other.”
Slater was partnered with Umansky, 53, for season 32 of the ballroom dancing competition. At the time, he was newly separated from wife Kyle Richards. Slater, meanwhile, was previously married to fellow DWTS pro Sasha Farber and filed for divorce in February 2023. (DWTS season 32 rehearsals started the following summer, but it’s not clear if her “difficult” journey was related to the divorce.)
“You get really close to your partners on the season,” Slater told Us on Friday. “He’s such an amazing person. We have such a good friendship that it meant a lot that he was able to come to the [DWTS] tour and support as well.”
From the ballroom to the real world! Many of Dancing With the Stars’ celebrity contestants and their professional partners developed strong bonds and friendships throughout the process. Months — and even years — after their seasons concluded, many of these former pairs have continued to be good friends to their one-time dance partner. Four years after competing on season 24 of the popular dance competition series in 2017, […]
Slater and many of her fellow pro dancers toured the United States at the end of season 32. Umansky came to watch the live show in March.
“It’s so nice to have Mauricio come and watch the Dancing With the Stars tour,” Slater gushed.
Slater and Umansky’s friendship sparked speculation from fans, who clocked their intense stage chemistry. They were also spotted holding hands in between rehearsals but shut down dating rumors.
“For full clarity, we are not dating,” Umansky previously said in an October 2023 Instagram Story video. “We’ve been dancing together now for six weeks, four hours a day every single day.”
Slater chimed in at the time, explaining that they share “similar personalities” and are very “supportive” of one another.
Many Dancing With the Stars contestants have such a palpable connection on the dance floor that fans start to speculate whether those bonds extend to real life. “We really do get on and have great chemistry, which made this dance so much easier,” Emma Slater told Us Weekly in September 2022 after DWTS host Alfonso […]
Umansky had used DWTS — he was eliminated on the October 31, 2023, broadcast — to help cope with his recent breakup. Us confirmed in July 2023 that he and Richards, 55, had separated shortly before the pair denied third-party involvement.
Umansky and Richards, who share three daughters, have yet to file for divorce but the Buying Beverly Hills star recently moved out.
“Kyle and Mauricio have been living separately for the last few months and he’s been staying [in a new condo],” a source exclusively told Us earlier this month. “They’ve both been traveling a lot recently, so it’s working out where they don’t stay under one roof.”
Shortly after Us broke the news of Umansky’s new pad, Richards officially removed his last name from her social media bios.
With reporting by Mike Vulpo
