'Dancing With the Stars' Season 24: Peta Murgatroyd & Maks Chmerkovskiy Coming Back After Having Baby [VIDEO]
Maks Chmerkovskiy and Peta Murgatroyd will both be dancing on the next season of Dancing With the Stars, despite just having their first child!
Chmerkovskiy and Murgatroyd are heading back to the ballroom for season 24 of Dancing With the Stars. The engaged pros, who are parents to 1-month-old Shai Alexander, announced their return on Good Morning America Tuesday morning.
"It's been some time. I'm definitely a little bit nervous, but I'm very excited to get back," said Murgatroyd, who won last spring with model Nyle DiMarco. "You know, I've definitely missed the dance floor. And I haven't been able to defend my title with Nyle, so I want to get back out there!"
WATCH: @PetaMurgatroyd and @MaksimC announce their return to the @DancingABC ballroom following the birth of their baby. #DWTS pic.twitter.com/0GwEPsCUp9
— Good Morning America (@GMA) February 21, 2017
Murgatroyd is still recovering from having her baby on Jan. 4, and she is aware that the process achieving her full athletic potential will take a little more time than usual.
"It's going to take a little bit longer to get back up to the fitness that I had before, but I think it's going to be okay," she admitted. "I'm going to take it slowly and hopefully I have an awesome partner to go through this with."
Meanwhile, Chmerkovskiy, who returned to DWTS after five seasons away this past fall, is already getting into the competitive spirit.
"I'm also [not at all] afraid of this one, because I don't know if everybody remembers the history, but the last time we were together on the same season, I won," said Chmerkovskiy, who won season 18 with Meryl Davis. "So this guy is the champ in the family. I can have any ball she has! We'll see what happens."
On a more serious note, Chmerkovskiy talked about the joys of parenthood thus far.
"It's a definitely special time," he admitted. "I always wanted to have kids - never thought it would be like this. You just can't stop staring at this little person and you know how parents say every little fart and sneeze, it's like, oh my God! So I'm just enjoying it."
Dancing With the Stars season 24 premieres Monday, March 20 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
