Dancing With the Stars pro Gleb Savchenko reacted to Maura Higgins’ comments about how she doesn’t want to be partnered with him in the 35th season because she’s “loyal” to his ex Brooks Nader.
Gleb Savchenko is happy to waltz away from Maura Higgins.
After Higgins told E! News that she hopes she won’t be paired with the Dancing With the Stars pro in the upcoming 35th season due to his past relationship with her friend Brooks Nader, Savchenko shared his reaction—and he didn’t mince words.
"Until I was asked to comment on this story, I’d genuinely never heard of this girl, Maura," Savchenko said in an Aug. 4 statement to the Daily Mail. "So I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep over the opinions of someone I’ve never met."
"It’s odd to publicly attack someone you’ve never even met," the 42-year-old continued, "but if that’s how she wants to make headlines before the show starts, that’s her choice."
Savchenko stated, "I’ll stay focused and leave the unnecessary drama to everyone else."
E! has reached out to Higgins’ reps for comment on Savchenko’s remarks but hasn’t heard back.
Previously, the Love Island U.K. alum—who’s been tapped to compete on DWTS along with Ciara Miller and Jackson Olson—said she’d “be happy with anyone except Gleb” when it comes to her pro partner. As she explained in a recent E! interview, “I'm loyal and I'm friends with Brooks.”
Besides, Higgins already has another pro in mind: three-time Mirrorball champion Mark Ballas, who was also her costar on season four of The Traitors.
"I even get nervous of saying it because I see all these videos and they're like, 'Mark! Mark!'" Higgins quipped. "My accent is crazy but I do want Mark."
Savchenko and Nader, 29, started dating when she competed on season 33 in 2024. The pair—who Nader said slept together on the first day they met—dated on-and-off for eight months before breaking up for good in April 2025.
Since then, Nader has been candid about her relationship with Savchenko and their messy split, including how the two once had sex on the DWTS set.
“The trailer thing was probably why we didn’t win,” Nader quipped in a May 2025 episode of the Chicks in the Office podcast. “What’s a girl to do? I was newly single.”
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