Why Bristol Palin Felt ‘Tension’ from Maks Chmerkovskiy on ‘DWTS’: ‘He Hated Me’

According to Bristol Palin, Maks Chmerkovskiy was not her biggest fan.

During the Aug. 26 episode of Cheryl Burke‘s Sex, Lies and Spray Tans podcast, the daughter of former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, 33, opened up about the unpleasant exchange she had with the longtime Dancing with the Stars pro when she competed in season 11.

When Burke asked which pro dancer “rolled their eyes at you” after she and her partner Mark Ballas survived elimination, Bristol replied, “Oh, Maks. Oh, he hated me so much,” adding the moment was “recorded” by cameras.

The Boyhartt founder admitted that she didn’t know the true reason behind Chmerkovskiy’s alleged disdain, which the pro dancer’s rep denied to PEOPLE.

“[It was] probably just because we kept going through,” she explained. “I mean, he was real nice at the beginning, but it was one of those things where as we kept going through.”

Palin added, “I definitely felt the tension from him. I forgot about that. Because the further we went along in it, the more it was like, ‘Oh gosh, okay.'”

A rep for Chmerkovskiy told PEOPLE of Palin’s comments, “Maks doesn’t hate anybody and he’s never hated Bristol. His bad boy reputation was overblown by the media at the time.”

“He was really good at dancing and he was really competitive, which are two important qualities you need to be on Dancing with the Stars,” his rep added. “Maks was disappointed because he and Brandy were on their way to win that year. He and everyone else in America were taken by surprise.”

In 2010, Chmerkovskiy and his celebrity partner Brandy were eliminated despite being frontrunners all season. Bristol and her partner Mark Ballas advanced to the next round and ended up placing third.

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At the time, the news of Chmerkovskiy and Brandy’s elimination made shockwaves in the DWTS-verse.

Today reported that a Wisconsin man named Steven N. Cowan had loaded his shotgun and allegedly shot a round into his television screen when Palin moved forward because he “did not think that she was a good dancer.”