Gleb Savchenko will not return to Dancing With The Stars amid a bitter custody battle over his two children with ex-wife Elena Samodanova.
The ABC show announced its season 35 lineup on Wednesday and the professional dancer was nowhere to be seen, despite spending 12 seasons on the show and working with contestant Hilaria Baldwin last year.
Savchenko shared a cryptic comment under a now-deleted TikTok and seemed angry about the criticism.
“Fourteen years of loyalty, erased by someone’s lie,” he wrote per Cosmopolitan. ‘Lies everywhere p.’
The clip featured Savchenko lip-syncing: “I don’t know where you got your information, I don’t know who your source is, but I’ll be the first to tell you this isn’t right.”
The dancer seemed much happier in one Instagram postwriting, “Guys, I promise…I’m fine. Nothing but love and gratitude for all those years in that ballroom. I’m excited about this next chapter and wish everyone a great season. No sad messages. We’re moving forward.’
Gleb Savchenko will not return to Dancing With The Stars for season 35, it was revealed on Wednesday
In July it was announced that Savchenko is taking his ex-wife Elena Samodanova back to court amid shocking child custody allegations.
DailyMail.com has contacted representatives for Savchenko and ABC.
Savchenko previously dated model Brooks Nader, whom he worked with on season 33 of Dancing With The Stars in 2024.
The on-off couple split for good last year.
This year’s cast includes Nader’s sister, Sarah Jane.
It is unclear whether her casting was the cause of Savchenko’s absence this year.
Meanwhile, Savchenko is embroiled in an ongoing legal battle with his ex Elena Samodanova.
Samodanova told Daily Mail in a statement: “While I have no comment on why DWTS has chosen not to have Gleb on the show this season, I want to make one thing clear: I am certain it has absolutely nothing to do with ongoing custody proceedings.”
Savchenko bitterly split from Samodanova, 43, in 2020 after 14 years of marriage and two children – with the divorce taking an ugly turn when Samodanova accused Savchenko of “persistent infidelity” – which he denied.
The dancer spoke about his departure from the ABC series in an Instagram post on Wednesday
Now Savchenko claims Samodanova “kidnapped” their children and held them in Hong Kong without his consent for two years, according to a July 14 criminal complaint obtained by the Daily Mail.
Savchenko, who is now seeking temporary legal and sole custody of eldest daughter Olivia, 15, alleged there was a ‘wrongful retention’ of their two children – and further alleged that his ‘controlling’ ex had also taken their daughters to Russia without his consent.
Samodanova denied his claims in a statement, claiming that Savchenko wrongly kept Olivia in the US after he “wrongfully canceled her ticket to Hong Kong” last month.
Savchenko has requested a temporary emergency order so that Olivia can live with him in Los Angeles and attend high school while his other daughter, Zlata, eight, stays with her mother in Hong Kong.
In the filing, the dancer alleged that Olivia’s possible return to her mother “is likely to result in an internationally wrongful detention/kidnapping of Olivia, again in a foreign country, including Russia which is not a signatory to the Hague Convention.”
The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction is supposed to protect children from international abduction by one parent, and to quickly return the child to the country of ‘habitual residence’.
