Sharna Burgess Admits It Was a 'Shock' Not Being Asked Back for 'Dancing with the Stars' Season 32

As Dancing With the Stars gears up to announce its full cast for season 32 on Wednesday, Sharna Burgess will be sitting this one out. 

The 38-year-old pro dancer opened up about the disappointment she felt when she wasn’t asked to participate in the upcoming season of the competitive reality show. 

During an episode of her new iHeart Radio podcast Old-Ish, Burgess explained how she temporarily took a leave of absence last year after having a baby and fully expected to return to the series.

“Last season I was supposed to come back but Zane was only eight weeks old… It just felt like I needed to sit in motherhood with Zane,” she said in a conversation with her  co-host and husband Brian Austin Green. “It was always, ‘I want to come back next year,’ and ‘Of course, we love you, we’ll always have you.'”

According to the DWTS pro, she learned she wouldn’t be receiving an invite when her costars began getting calls to return and her phone remained silent.

“Because it was such a shock, because I wasn’t expecting it, it was tough,” Burgess confessed before referencing the time she wasn’t asked to return for season 27. “It’s not the first time. My last five years on the show have been rocky — not because of the show.”

“I love the show deeply, but we had a new executive producer come in, I think five years ago now. I had just won with Bobby Bones and he decided to not bring me back,” she added. “There’s a lot of speculation as to why.”

Reps for Burgess and ABC did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Burgess and Green welcomed their son Zane Walker in June 2022. The couple met through their business manager and subsequently were partnered together during season 30 of the dance competition show.

Ahead of season 31, the television personality shared a video to Instagram explaining her decision to not appear on the series.

"I have some news that I have to tell you guys because I keep getting so many DMs about it," she began the video. "After long conversations and lots of thinking and really trying to sit with what was right, and many conversations with Deena Katz, who's our casting director but also like a second mom to me, I made the really hard decision to not do this season of Dancing with the Stars. There's been a list that has been released saying that I would be a pro and I won't be."

"I will be there in some capacity and we're still talking about that," she noted. "I'm at one hundred percent capacity with my body. I feel fit, I feel strong, I'm so ready to dance. I'm about to go to the gym right now. We're going to talk about what that means and how I can be apart of it."

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Ultimately, Burgess said she wasn't willing to leave her newborn for hours on end.

"I was not ready to spend at minimum 10 hours a day away from Zane," she shared. "I say ten hours because it's not just the time in the room. It's the travel time, the prep time, the hair and makeup time. Sundays and Mondays are full days away. I'm a full time breastfeeding mama and not only that, I just, I am so in love with just being a mom."