Val Chmerkovskiy said he ‘knows where Carrie Ann parks her car’ weeks before DWTS suspension

A resurfaced interview clip from three weeks ago shows Val Chmerkovskiy saying he “knows where Carrie Ann parks her car” before he was suspended from Dancing With the Stars.

The clip is from Val and his celeb partner Jenna Dewan’s week three Yacht Rock post-dance interview. In the Entertainment Tonight interview with Denny Directo, they’re asked how they feel about Carrie Ann Inaba saying that Jenna was “pushing too hard.” 

Val and Jenna scored a 21 out of 30 for their samba to Africa by Toto, which received harsh criticism from judge Carrie Ann. She pointed out a stumble that the duo had and ultimately gave them a seven out of 10.

Val shrugged off the comment and said, “I was going pretty hard too,” in response to Denny. 

Jenna then raises the question: “What are we going to do if we don’t go hard?” Which is so valid. It’s a competition anyways, they need to be doing the most to survive elimination.

As Jenna is giving a very neutral response of, “I love their perspective. I want to take it and try to work with it,” Val then cuts in. 

“I know where [Carrie Ann] parks her car,” he jokingly says. They all laugh it off while Denny chimes in with, “Val’s like, ‘I’ll show you going too hard,'” to which he nods along to.

This interview happened in week three, just two weeks before Val was suspended for another comment he made to Carrie Ann regarding his wife, Jenna Johnson, and her dance with Harry Shum Jr.

In a now-deleted TikTok story, he also wrote: “You almost saw Fresh Prince enter the ballroom last night.” This has led some to believe he’s referencing the Will Smith slap, and are concerned that Val was trying to insinuate that he was close to slapping Carrie Ann during DWTS.  The TikTok Story has since been deleted, and Val released an apology statement shortly afterwards. 

BBC Studios then released an announcement saying he would not participate in this upcoming week, Dedication Night.

Val Chmerkovskiy also released his own statement following the news of his Dancing With The Stars suspension, saying: “In a moment where my instinct was to defend my wife, I made a poor decision to reference a meme to ‘keep my wife’s name; out of the conversation, without stopping to think through what else that reference could imply, which was genuinely never my intention,” he said. “Carrie Ann certainly didn’t deserve to get caught in the middle of my bad judgment, and I hate that she was.”

He continued: “The last thing I want is to become a distraction from an important week or from the incredible work my dance partner Jenna Dewan is putting in. Please send Carrie Ann, Jenna, and the whole DWTS family lots of love during Dedication Night. I’ll be watching and cheering everyone on!!”

In what seemed to be a one-off occurrence, now may be part of a larger trend with Val. For now, he’s only been suspended for one week, and Alan Bersten has stepped in to replace Val. But with more of his questionable behaviour coming to light, will Val continue dancing on season 35 of DWTS?