Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I really don't know that much about Peter Murgatroyd. Um,
I certainly don't know how to pronounce her husband's name.
Was she can help me with. But I've seen her
on Dancing with the Stars, and I know that she
has been a vocal spokesperson for infertility and what you
go through and mostly just her career as a dancer
(00:23):
and pour a into beauty. So I'm really looking forward
to talking to her. And here's my conversation with Peter Murgatroyd.
It's so nice to meet you. Nice to meet you too.
I'm I'm very honored right now to be speaking with you.
Thank you. Oh no, I'm very excited to talk to
you too. And I see I see at the bottom
(00:45):
of your screen it says your husband's name. Could you
just pronounce it for me, Chamikovsky Chamiakovsky. Yes, so that
is that your name to now? Chamiakovsky legally yes, yes,
but I'm on his computer today because mine was okay, well, um,
(01:07):
I am also my grand My grandparents are from Ukraine.
So yeah, so I watched you know, your husband when
he was over there. Yes, it was a time that
I would love to forget about it. Was pretty bad
and amongst other things like you know, struggling with infertility
(01:29):
and stuff like that along the way as well. It
was just like a culmination of terrible things happening, you know,
in the last two years. But yeah, you know, we've
got to be grateful that he's out of there and
he's he's fine. Yeah, and and how are you doing.
I'm I think that I'm doing really good right now.
(01:51):
I think I'm in a great place. I'm positive and
hopeful and just um, it was just a little bit
of a dark time to get out of, that's for sure.
It was. We were really in it together, and you know,
thank god, we do everything together. You know, it sounds
corny and stupid, but we've got each other and that's
(02:11):
kind of the main thing. So it does not sound
corny and stupid. I am married for thirty four years
and there's nothing I don't do with my husband and
vice versa. So no, it's not corny and stupid. It's
the way it should be. Yeah, I mean, congrats on
thirty four years. And yeah, yeah, thirty four years, three
(02:32):
kids and a new grandchild of a week. So it's
quite a quite a journey. But you know, nothing. Nothing's
easy in life, as you know, you know, it's yeah, yeah,
And how old is your You have a son, Yes,
he's five and a half now. He just studied kindergarten
and he's happy and thriving. And this is one of
(02:54):
the things that I've kind of come to terms with
that I just have to be I have to look
around and be grateful for what I have. And again,
that sounds so simple Lehman's terms, be grateful, but it's
just something that I'm learning to do every morning, to
wake up and look around and be be grateful, you know,
(03:15):
because instead of more, instead of hoping for more babies,
instead of hoping for a soccer team to come by,
you know, it just is what it is and take
life as it comes, you know. Now, well, you've been
very open about your fertility struggles and you know, your
first child, did you have issues getting pregnant with him
(03:36):
or no? He was surprised. I guess it was just,
you know, we're happy and working and just living a
great life. And yeah, and then the second time, which
was my first miscarriage, it was the first time we
tried as well, so we thought we were on top
of the world. Just you know, Oh my gosh, it's
(03:58):
always the first time we try, you know, like, yeah,
we were just thinking it was easy, and from then
on it just when you know, but there's still hope.
Are you still hopeful in trying or yeah? Absolutely? I
mean we're always you know. I thought about completely not
(04:20):
trying for like a good six months now, just to
get my body a break. But you know, I've definitely
given it a break from IVF. I've had a good
two months two months off now. Um, so I think
I'm going to continue with that for like the rest
of the year and then just kind of see what happens.
But just sitting in a nice space of just positivity
(04:43):
is just nice. Yeah, no, it is. It is really nice.
And so so tell me, you know how it is
to be back on the show. I know you took
a year off, Yeah I did, and again, amongst all
the other stuff that happened, I I didn't go back
to the show, which I thought was the right decision
at the time, and then I realized how much I
(05:04):
missed it. You know, dancing is you know, the passion
that fuels me, It makes me happy, it makes me, um,
you know, emoting all of those emotions through the dance.
It just it makes me feel good. And I realized
how much I missed moving my body, especially during the
ib F months, where you know, you're either bed ridden
(05:25):
or you're on the couch, or you can't even you know,
the most exercise that I could do was walking around
the block. They said, so it's hard for when you're
so active and when you're so physical with your body
your entire life, and then you just have to sit
and wait. Um, so yeah, I was. I was really
really happy to go back to the season this time.
(05:45):
You know, it's on Disney. Plus, it's kind of refreshed,
it's renewed um. And I think I made the right
decision because mentally it put me in a good space too,
after hearing that the IVF didn't work right, because I mean,
from most people that don't have a regular walking or
exercise program, I don't think they realized it's just not
(06:05):
the physical that your body doesn't feel as good, but
it's really the mental. I mean, you know, the cobwebs.
I clean the cobwebs of my brain when I moved
my body, so I'm I'm sure it must have been
It must have been difficult for sure. Yeah, but well,
I mean I knew it was for you know, a
great outcome. This is what I want to be pregnant again.
(06:27):
But yeah, it's just like, oh my gosh, how much
more sitting around? Can I can one possibly? Do? You know?
It's like difficult. Well, you you've been an athlete your
whole life. I mean you were a ballerina right until
you're sixteen, is that true? And and you had an injury, yes,
ankle injury. I had uh, full blown ankle reconstruction at sixteen. Yeah,
(06:54):
it was it was tough because that was what that
was like my career trajectory. I was going to a
prima ballerina either in Russia and Germany or London and
that kind of just fell apart. So transitioned into boring dancing,
found the local town hall down the road and signed
myself up and kind of never looked back. And here
(07:15):
I'm in Los Angeles. It's it's quite strange that you
were this was this was in Australia that you did this. Yeah,
this is all in Australia, right you were you were
born in New Zealand, but you moved to Australia and
you consider yourself from Australia, and yeah, I came to
Australia when I was like eighteen months old, so I
considered myself Australian. Yeah. Yeah, And you wouldn't have met
(07:38):
your husband if you had followed that original path, right,
So that's true. I mean, we met each other on
Broadway in New York in one of the shows that
I was doing there, and yeah, it's it's quite surreal
because we were both with other people at the time,
so he came in with the fiance I had a
long term boyfriend, and there was just nothing like we
(07:59):
never that about each other at all. Um. And then
it was only when we came back to l A
together for the season of Dancing with Stars and I
had quit that ballt um that Broadway show, that we
kind of just looked at each other in a different
light and thought, oh, you were both single. Then when
you went to l Yeah, yeah, And was it love
(08:21):
at first sight? I mean, come on, your husband is
so gorgeous and hot and sexy and all those things,
so you know, and no, it wasn't it truly wasn't
we I Mean I thought he was a good looking guy,
but I feel I'm so I'm so far removed when
somebody comes with somebody else, I don't even like put
him in my peripheral like or anything. He's he's out,
(08:44):
like he's not even a you know, you're not even
a thought in my mind. So not well, your other
your other boyfriend us have been also good looking, so
you know, yeah, he's all right. Yeah? Uh and how
many years you guys married? We have been marying five
years now, but we've been together for about nine years.
(09:05):
So yeah, it's I feel like it's a long time
as in, like for Hollywood, that's quite a feat, you
know it is. And you work together also, right, yes,
so yeah, what is what are what are the pros
and what are the cons um pros? Is that we
(09:28):
get to share our love for dance and we get
to perform. You know, if we're on a tour together,
we get to live that life every night and perform
in front of a live audience. There is nothing more
thrilling than hearing them clap for you and letting them
feel your emotion. Um cons that if you're having an
(09:48):
argument and you have to go out and dance, you know,
you've got to put that face on. You've got to
get through it, or you know, you don't agree on choreography,
or you don't like this step, but he wants to
do this step. You know, those sorts of things come
up all the time. How soon after you guys that,
did you guys get engaged? Um, well, we dated for
(10:09):
a year and then we broke up for a year,
got back together, and then it was about a year
and a half of us being back together that he proposed.
So yeah, I think it was a good I think
it was a good timeline. Really, we kind of figured
out that no, we really want to be together, and
then um kind of made it happen and solidified it.
(10:30):
And what was your first dance and your first dance
song at the wedding? That must have been like unbreaking believable.
To be honest, it was quite simple and we did nothing.
My dress was so big that, um, we kind of
left the performance to everybody else. We didn't do that
whole look at me, look at me, I'm going to
(10:51):
rip away my dress and a short dress underneath. Now.
We didn't do anything. We just stood there and swayed
and our song was from Brianna. Um, I literally can't
remember what our song is right now. I will not
tell him. I will not tell him. I'm sure he's not.
(11:13):
It was an acoustic version of one of Brianna's songs
like my mine. I do remember mine was Don't Worry
Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin. I don't know why I
walked down the aisle to that. It was our first song.
I don't know. Oh my gosh, I love that. So
(11:38):
tell me a little bit about your self care routines.
Like a lot of people listening, you know, I talk
a lot about you know different you know, issues about
how to eat and how to take care of yourself.
What is your philosophy and is there anything you can
struggle with? Mm hmmm, Um, well, I was taught from
a very young age. My mother was always were big
(12:00):
on skincare as in when I was very little, always
moisturized in my face when I went to school. I
went to school with a shiny face every day with
moisturizer on it. And people would always comment and say,
you know, why do you have a shiny face? And
I said, Well, because my mom put moisturize around me.
She's making sure my skin is not dry. And um,
(12:21):
I really thank her for that, because I feel like
my skin has held up over all the years of
makeup and crazy things would have to do with you
being on Broadway and stuff like that. Um, But I
always think less it's more. I think having good skin
is when you look the most beautiful. Um. Seeing the
(12:41):
skin through a light foundation is what I love the best.
I hate that caked on powdered um. What do you
call it? The baked looks like? Yeah, I mean each
of their own. Everybody can do their own thing. But
I just don't think it brings out the beauty. I
think it just dulls your face down and you can't
see who you are. Um. But yeah, less is more
(13:05):
in terms of makeup and skincare, I think is just
so important. A great I cream, a great hyrolymic acid serum,
love that stuff. Vitamin c um and taking care of
yourself on the inside. To M. Max and I are
huge on vitamins, huge on collagen, huge on peptides. We're
on a big pep type program for the last eight
(13:27):
nine years where talk about peptides because I know a
lot about college and I don't know a lot about peptides. Well,
we we have been injecting ourselves with pep pipes for years, um,
you know, for anti aging benefits, for other health benefits
like performance benefits with dancing and stuff like that, to
keep our um muscles going, to keep us from fatiguing
(13:51):
and stuff like that. Um it triggers the pecuitary gland
to release um more of the hormone that keeps you young.
And it's natural. Um It's it's nothing that can hurt
you in the long run, but um it definitely has
made a huge impact on my dance career. Um. You know,
I'm thirty six right now, and I feel like I've
(14:14):
come back to the show after it was four days
between my phone call of you're not pregnant to being
back on the show. Hey, you've got a partner. You've
got to be here to rehearse for eight hours a day,
blah blah blah. And I'm like, oh my gosh, can
I do it? You know, getting back into the routine.
I feel like my body is so um like I've
(14:36):
really done well with my upkeep, with the years of
training and stuff like that, with the peptides that has
helped me. I danced with twin year old you know
last night. I'm dancing right next to twenty year old girls. Women.
I feel like I keep up, I hold my own still,
and I don't look like the old woman off the bunch.
Thirty six is a very young woman. So let me
(14:58):
just tell you thirty six is still very are young.
But so you don't just go into the health food
store or Sephora and say, can I have some peptides?
So what do you get? Where do you get them?
What kind of a doctor? Um? Special doctors one that
specializes in um, you know, microbiome that you know, our
(15:20):
our doctor who has done you know, our surgeries. I
had another ankle surgery, Max that's had knee surgery, tote surgeries. UM,
he's also a molecular biologist, so he specializes in peptides.
And so yeah, we've we've been on that road and
that train with him for many years now. And you know,
I've got to say it is the fountain of youth
(15:41):
because my husband, he literally he looks the same as
when he did when he was there and he's now
forty two. So, UM, I really do credit everything to peptides. No,
I must, I must get this doctor's name one day.
It's very I'm someone that is very interested in you know,
things that make you feel better, look better without you know,
(16:04):
doing any harm. So yes, it's without all of the
nasty stuff. It's you know, it's not engecting botox and
fillers in to make you look more plump. It's just peptides. Yeah,
you don't do botox or fillers or anything. I do botox,
I do. I started when I was thirty four. Um,
(16:25):
I hesitated telling people that because you know of the
stigma of you know, oh you do botox because you're
in Hollywood and stuff like that. But I found that
with HDTV UM being on camera. I felt that by
the age of thirty four, I was like, come on, Peter,
bite the bullet, do it type of thing. So I
(16:46):
do do botox. Yeah, no fillers though, so do you.
I mean it doesn't by looking at you, I can't
imagine that you struggle seeing yourself on TV and you know,
not liking what you see. Is that something you've experienced.
I mean in terms of face and embody. Absolutely, um more,
(17:08):
I would say more so with my the way I
have looked at my body over the years. I have
just tried not to criticize myself as much. Coming from
a ballet background. It was ingrained in me with how
thin that I needed to be. At the age of ten,
they would tell me that I put on weight. Um.
(17:29):
I remember the day that I came back from a
holiday and my teeth. My Russian ballet teacher said to me, oh, Peter,
you know kind of pinched my side. And I was
ten years you know, those things kind of stay with
you for the rest of your life. And I didn't
even remember those things until I I had moments with
my body where I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm verging
(17:50):
on an eating disorder right now. Like I need to stop,
you know, I need to stop having these thoughts. I
either have body dysmorphia or you know, I'm becoming anorexic
or believe me or whatever you to call it. It
all stemmed from chime with stuff. And yes, I have
had many moments because my weight for weights all the time,
you know, because you're a human. Yeah, because you're a human. Okay,
(18:14):
it's hard, you know when you're on the show, Like
right now, I feel really good about myself, you know,
I'm I'm fit, I'm lean. Um, But as soon as
the show ends, I within a month, I put on
five to seven pounds, probably more to the seven pounds
and it's fine, but it's like keeping keeping yourself looking
nice in between the seasons of Dancing with the Stars,
(18:36):
you know, is difficult too, because you just don't get
the cardio that you get whilst you're on the show. Yeah,
so what is the cardio like, what's your what are
the trainings like on the show? Well, the show is
just strictly dancing. But you know, right right now, I
don't need to go to the gym as much because
I'm doing so much cardio and dancing and I don't
(18:56):
want to lose any more weight. Um. But in the offseason,
and I definitely have to get that gym membership, go boxing,
go to pilates, you know, keep the strength training. I
do everything to try to keep my weight att Yeah.
So when so, when you're doing Dancing with the Stars,
how many months does it take out of the ear
(19:19):
h It's about three and a half three and a
half months solidly, no days off. It's full on the
rest of your besides your son. I know you have
a little makeup line or a start of a makeup line,
(19:43):
so yeah, beauty brand, So tell me about that. So
I wanted to create a tanning line that um was
good for the stage and also good for everyday life
because as you know, like you've seen the orange people
walk outside really bad. UM. And I could never find
something on the market that looks amazing on the stage
that didn't look horrible and like an umpa lumper on
(20:05):
you know. Three. So I created my own, which they're
there brown, they don't go orange, they drive super um.
This is the three tanning mooses, the light medium of
the dark. They go on with my my mit. It's
like a velveting mit and it has like a plastic
inside so it doesn't go through your hands, and it
(20:28):
honestly makes it streak free. It's so easy, it's you
can't score for it, you can't go. And then we
have the tanning mist and that is like a professional
grade tanning nozzle. It's honestly like you're at the spray
tanning booth, um and you can. I love this for
the face because I think it's better than using the
(20:50):
mooses for the face. Yeah, but you don't just spray
it on your face. Yeah, yeah, spray to close your eyes.
How do you do that? Yeah? Your roll your lips
in Yeah, and then just do that all over. Yeah,
and then don't you have to blend it in? No? No,
I mean if you've held it too long in one spot. Yeah,
(21:13):
but I mean you've got to keep it moving around
and down your neck area. And it looks so natural.
And then we did an extended met for the back,
so you know, there were so many people that couldn't
get their back and they're like Peter making that. So
where do you sell it? We sell it online in
(21:34):
selected beauty stores, spas retailers America and in Canada right now,
so h and how how big is your team? Um? Well,
we're restructuring right now, so um, it's it's about five
to seven people west. But yeah, we're just about to
(21:58):
make like a move with partnerships and stuff like that.
So yeah, it's interesting. It's going to be cool. Oh cool.
I would love to check it out to find to
find self tanners that aren't orange would be a game changer.
Oh yeah, I'll send you some. Just let me know
where to send. I will and I'll send you some
Jones Road because I don't know if you've tried. I
(22:19):
have not, yea, So I will send you you know,
the some of the Jones Road and UM, you know,
I'm happy to help if there's any any advice since
this is my second my second beauty yes please, I
mean you're the mogul like when I you know, I
obviously know who you are. Um, and I love that
(22:39):
tape of your products. But I couldn't believe I was
doing a podcast with you. I'm like, I'm doing it
with Bobby Brown, the makeup artists I said. I was like, yes,
I've had I've had a lot of different like you
know pieces, and right now, I think what I find
so interesting and why this podcast really resonates with me
(23:00):
is because like, for example, you're a dancer, you're you're
on the show, but now you're a beauty entrepreneur and
you know, you're a spokesperson for you know whatever, And
so I just find that right now, you're allowed to
be many different things and you don't have to just
fit into a hole. So, you know, I think it's
it's neat man, And I think it's amazing for people
(23:21):
out there to realize there's nothing you can't do, no
matter what your age or what your ability is. If
there's only one way to do it, which is just
to try it. Absolutely, I fully agree, and I wish
I had done this sooner and listen to my gut.
That's like my number one piece of advice is that
I was I was nervous. I was scared to have
(23:42):
my own line, and I don't know why. I was
just you know, doubting myself, you know, in my younger years,
thinking oh, how am I going to do that? Nobody's
gonna want to do that with me? You know who
am I? And then when I kind of bit the
bullet and I thought, no, I actually know what I'm
doing with tenny of us have done them for so long.
I've used everything on the market, so I should know
(24:04):
a thing too. And when I finally started to believe that,
then like I made my vision look, which is like amazing.
You know, that's what you got to do to get
and you've got to, you know, many times, shift and
shake the tree and get rid of you know, some
people and add more people and you know, figure it out.
(24:25):
I mean it's you're you're never exactly where you should
where you have to be, if that makes any sense.
Mm hmm. That's a good point. Yeah, Yeah, it's always evolving. Yeah,
you are, you are and you know, I think it's
really neat. So for everyone listening here today. If I
always like to ask my guests, if there's one piece
(24:47):
of advice that you could give people that are listening
that they say, okay, that could change the course of
my life, for the course of my day, what would
you tell them? Well, just a sort of piggy back
off what I just said, UM, I would say to
block out the noise, to listen to yourself more than
other people around you, because other people will absolutely try
(25:10):
to interject their opinions above yours and try to sway
you from your track. If you know what you want
to do, if you have a clear vision for for
your for your business, UM, I say, just go with it,
just run with it. Because I had a clear vision
in the beginning and I didn't run with it, and
I should have. This would have been out ten years
ago if I had done that, And I truly believe
(25:33):
that if I had believed in myself a little bit
more and thought that no, I can do this, um,
you know, I would have been way further along than
I am right now. All right, awesome, And do you
do you have ideas for other products? Yeah? You know,
I think the makeup industry right now is super saturated
(25:54):
with celebrity brands coming out, so I I would love
to all be into it, just just a little bit,
just to like finish off the line. I would love
to have a bronzer that would match the tan, so
they could bronze up the face a little bit more.
And then like a line of nude lip glosses and lipsticks.
(26:14):
That would be my goal, just to like finish that off,
to have the whole complete body done. Um, and then
bodycare you know, exfoliators, tan extenders, body wash that would
accompany the tan. Well, um, those types of things will
come next hopefully yeah, no, not hopefully. I see it.
I see it. Well. I just have to say it
(26:37):
was really a pleasure speaking to you. You're you're awesome,
and yeah, yeah, I wish you were a lot of
lock and everything. And We'll have our people exchange our
addresses and I'd love to I'll let you know what
I think and vice versa. I would love that. Thank
you so much for your time now my pleasure. Thank you, Okay, bye, Hi,
(27:01):
thanks for listening. Follow us on social apt The Important
Things podcast on Instagram, and just Bobby brown on TikTok.
See you guys next time.