Sharna Burgess Gets Real About Smoking Meth at 17

Photo by Greg Doherty | Getty Images

Everyone was surprised when Sharna Burgess wasn’t asked to return for Dancing with the Stars Season 32. But perhaps no one was more surprised than Sharna herself. She chose to spend more time with family during Season 31 but expected to return after.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Sharna attributed the lack of a callback to her controversial Season 27 win and a change-up in producers. It’s always possible that she could return down the line, but nothing is certain.

But in the meantime, Sharna’s been making the press rounds. Some costars responded to her dismissal, and she also got to put in her two cents on the potential delays that were facing Season 32. Now, she’s taken the opportunity to open up about something more serious.

Sharna’s struggles with addiction

Sharna spoke with Page Six about her drug addiction. She explained that at just 15 years old, she tried meth for the first time. “We were sitting at the backyard of someone’s house,” she recalled, “and a crack pipe was being passed around with meth in it, and we were all taking hits of it.” By age 17, she “was partying pretty much three to four days a week.”

She said she began to ponder on her circumstances and her future. “I realized that I had come from being an Australian champion ballroom dancer, I represented my country at the World Championships, I was an athlete, the best in the country at the time. And because of a knee injury, I fell off.”

She further expressed how her father and home life had been “triggers” for her substance abuse, and obstacles to becoming fully sober. “Eventually, the things I would take to get to that place of euphoria weren’t strong enough or enough, and I do more and have more and more often. And that was the slippery slope for me.”

Ultimately, it was dance that gave her “the strength” to get clean.

TELL US – WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON SHARNA’S EXPERIENCES? AND HER CANDOR?

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