Cameron Mathison Reveals He Asked for a Different Partner When Paired with Edyta Śliwińska on “Dancing With the Stars ”
"'Put me with anybody but Edyta,'" the 'General Hospital' actor recalled saying
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(L-R) Cameron Mathison and Edyta Sliwinska on Dancing with the Stars.Cameron Mathison recently recalled an unexpected obstacle from his time on Dancing With the Stars.
In the July 21 episode of Cheryl Burke’s podcast Sex, Lies and Spray Tans, just 10 days before the General Hospital alum, 54, and his wife Vanessa, 57, announced their divorce, he opened up about being asked to join the dance competition show in 2007. When he found out he was going to be paired with Edyta Śliwińska, the soap star said he was unsure if participating was the right decision.
"I watched the show, so I knew Edyta,” he explained. “She’s a very beautiful woman, and I don't even know if Edyta knows this, I actually called Dina Katz, who's my dear friend now, who at the time was casting director, I called her and I said, ‘Listen, I'm so happy that you've offered me the show. I can't wait. I'm in. Just do me a favor. Put me with anybody but Edyta.’”
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Edyta Sliwinska and Cameron Mathison on Dancing with the Stars.He continued, “Because I knew my wife and I, we were going through a little bit of a challenge at that time, and Edyta didn't wear a lot of clothes."
Related: Cameron Mathison and Wife Vanessa Split After 22 Years of Marriage
When it came down to it, Cameron stuck with Śliwińska and finished in fifth place. Cameron said he spent a lot of time building the connection that was needed with his partner to get the dancing just right but he had empathy for his wife back home.
“Vanessa was a trooper,” he admitted. “We'd recently gone through a bunch of stuff, and it wasn't great timing and I was off in LA spending time with this beautiful woman, dressed up, against her, sweating with her 5 hours a day rehearsing, and then doing all the press and touring stuff together, and it was really hard.”
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Cameron Mathison (left) and Vanessa Mathison (right)Balancing his schedule with filming for All My Children in New York and DWTS in Los Angeles made it difficult for Cameron to tend to his family as well, he said. Because he had no choice but to be with Śliwińska nearly every day, he said he sometimes wondered, “Why is it so intimate?”
“I tried. I did everything in my power to make that as easy for [Vanessa] as possible,” he noted. “But it just is what it is. I mean, you can be married and do the show, obviously, but it can be, depending on the circumstances — I think if you all lived in LA or whatever, but being on a plane and traveling and hotels and the whole thing, I think it's just really hard.”
“You're in this pressure cooker,” he said. “And people probably wouldn't realize, but especially back then, man, especially when the whole country was watching, it was like so much pressure.”
Related: Who Is Cameron Mathison's Ex-Wife? All About Vanessa Mathison
Cameron also said that at the time, DWTS brought in “Super Bowl ratings,” and he and Śliwińska often confided in and related to one another when it came to the intense process.
“You become really close, and it works for the show, and it works for the people that are watching the show, but it doesn't work for the family at home,” he admitted.
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Cameron Mathison (left) and Vanessa Mathison (right)Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
On Wednesday, July 31, Cameron and Vanessa announced they were divorcing after 22 years of marriage. The pair share two children together, son Lucas, who was born April 2003 and daughter Leila, born in July 2006.
"After 22 years of marriage, we have made the difficult decision to part ways," they wrote in a joint statement on their respective Instagram pages. "We enter this new chapter with deep love, kindness, and respect for each other. We hold gratitude in our hearts for the wonderful years we shared together. Our children have been and will continue to be our highest priority, and we will forever share in our devotion and love for them. We remain friends, and both wish the best for one another. We sincerely appreciate your respect for our family’s privacy during this transition."
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