DWTS Alum’s Husband Accused Her of Tony Dovolani Affair

Season 3 “Dancing With the Stars” alum Sara Evans recently opened up about her time on the show. The country music singer was partnered with ballroom pro Tony Dovolani. Evans withdrew from the competition for personal reasons.

What some may not remember is that Evans was having problems in her marriage. In fact, her then-husband, Craig Schelske, accused her of having an affair with Dovolani — and others.

“He accused me of having an affair with Tony. He accused me of having an affair with 11 people,” Evans said on the April 29 episode of the “Sex, Lies, and Spray Tans” podcast.

“I don’t have time to pee. I have three babies,” Evans added. She and Schelske have three kids together; Olivia, Audrey, and Avery.

Evans filed for divorce in October 2006.

Here’s what you need to know:

Sara Evans Called That Period of Time ‘One of the Hardest’ of Her Life

On an April 2024 episode of her “Diving in the Deep” podcast, Evans opened up about her split from Schelske.

“I was killing myself. It was so exhausting. It was one of the hardest times in my life,” she explained. “I knew that I needed to get out of the marriage, but I didn’t believe in divorce, I didn’t want to divorce,” she continued, adding that her time on DWTS made her realize that things weren’t going to work in her marriage.

“As I was appearing on ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ the marriage was breaking down. We tried marriage counseling a lot. … He wanted to be at every episode and come down here and be seen on TV, on camera. Also at the same time, he was trying to make a case against me to show that I was working and not being a good mom,” she continued.

“I would be on ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ and you could see some of the episodes, my eyes were just blood red swollen because I’d been crying the whole day, missing my kids,” she added.

Evans got remarried to Jay Barker in 2008.

Sara Evans & Tony Dovolani Built a Strong Friendship

Evans told Burke that she still talks to Dovolani and that he and his wife were there for her during the challenging time. “Tony and I are still friends. And we still speak every now and then,” she said.

Meanwhile, a couple of fans praised Evans for the interview in a Reddit thread about the podcast episode.

“I remember her ex floating cheating allegations between her and Tony, and that was the rumor of why she dropped out (I never believed it and I don’t think a lot of people did). Given some of Cheryl’s own trauma, I can see where this might have been a therapeutic type interview for her too,” one person wrote.

“I really [loved] this interview and hearing Sara and Cheryl discussing all these difficult topics. Also [want] to add, this makes me love Tony even more than I already did, and Sara saying she would only want to dance with Tony of she were to return, even of it meant she had to request him back, really says a lot,” someone else said.

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