Peta Murgatroyd and Maks Chmerkovskiy Announce Return to Dancing with the Stars

The couple made the announcement Tuesday (Feb 21) on Good Morning America.

How is Peta feeling about diving back into competitive dance barely a month after the birth of baby boy Shai?

“I’m definitely a little bit nervous,” she said, “but I’m very excited to get back. I’ve definitely missed the dance floor and I haven’t been able to defend my title.” Peta won the DWTS mirror ball trophy with deaf model Nyles DiMarco in spring 2016. “I want to get back out there,” she said.

Maks quipped in return: “I don’t know if everybody remembers the history, but last time we were together on the same season I won. THIS guy is the champion in the family.”

The rivalry is on!

As far as dancing post baby, Peta explained to former DWTS celeb and GMA meteorologist, Ginger Zee, who also hit the dance floor as a celeb after delivering a child, “I just want to be healthy. It’s going to take a little bit longer I think to get back up to the fitness that I was doing and had before,” she said. “But…I’m going to take it slowly and I have an awesome partner to go through this with.”

Maks is enjoying his time as a new father: “It’s definitely a special time I was always wanting to have kids, never thought it would be like this. You just can’t stop staring at this little person. You know how parents say that every little fart and sneeze…I’m just enjoying this!”

However, Maks has mixed feelings about returning to work. “This is the only difficult part about coming back on the show this time, because it’ll just take time away from being with this dude.” But then the competitive side of his personality takes over. “I just want to make her coming back and winning as difficult as possible.”

Dancing with the Stars returns to ABC on Monday March 20. The new cast will be announced on GMA March 1.

Watch Maks & Peta announce their return to Dancing with the Stars below.