Sherri Shepherd Recalls How Maksim Chmerkovskiy Paid for Her Dance Classes amid Divorce from Lamar Sally

Sherri Shepherd knows she can always count on Maksim Chmerkovskiy.

On Thursday's episode of Sherri, the television host, 55, opened up about how the Dancing with the Stars pro, 43, supported her amid her divorce from ex-husband Lamar Sally in 2014.

"Maksim is so sweet and I want to give him a shout out because when I was going through my second divorce — I was at the lowest point in my life," she shared while discussing a recent video that Chmerkovskiy had posted on social media featuring his wife Peta Murgatroyd and their son Shai.

"I was having a hard time financially. It was just court stuff," Shepherd continued. "And Maksim called me and invited me to his dance studio, Come Dance with Me, to just dance and take classes."

While she appreciated the offer, Shepherd — who was partnered with Chmerkovskiy's brother Val on DWTS in 2012 — recalled telling him that she would not be able to pay for the classes.

"I said to him, I said, 'Maksim, I can't afford it right now.' And Maksim said to me, he said, 'You are always family,'" she said. "And he gave me all my dance classes for free for almost a year and I want to thank Maksim."

Shepherd called the dancing pro "an all-around good guy."

Shepherd married Sally in Chicago in August 2011, before he filed for legal separation in May 2014, according to L.A. Superior Court documents. That August, they welcomed son Lamar Sally, Jr. via egg donor and surrogate.

The pair were then involved in a lengthy legal back-and-forth over child support. In 2017, Shepherd announced a "huge victory" in the child support case as her rep confirmed to PEOPLE that a judge denied Sally's request for an increase in child support payments for the couple's son.

As of late, Shepherd has been staying busy with her new talk show.

Sherri came about after Shepherd began filling in for Wendy Williams on The Wendy Williams Show. As Williams' long-running daytime talk series was taken off-air in 2022, Sherri was born and took over its predecessor's previous time slot.

In January, Sherri was greenlit for two more seasons, covering the 2024-2025 television season. In a statement at the time, Shepherd shared her excitement for even more laughs to come on the daytime talk show.

"I am so thrilled that Sherri has been renewed for two more years," she said. "I launched this show with the mission to give daytime viewers a 'good time,' just like my theme song says."

Sherri airs weekdays in national syndication.