Cheryl Burke has been through an emotional roller-coaster lately. First, she lost her beloved father in March of 2018, and then she met her real-life biological sister for the first time ever. Burke shared a selfie on social media of herself and her sister, Ina, smiling together. The family resemblance is remarkable.
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“With my father’s passing came a lot of darkness but there was also a lot of light – I found my sister who I had never known. We recently met for the first time and it was such a surreal experience to walk into a room to meet and walk out feeling like we had known each other forever. In her I see the same drive and passion that our dad had and there’s clearly a major family resemblance. It may have taken 30 years to find each other, but I am so excited to have another sister for life,” she captioned the photo.
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Burke told People magazine that she knew of her sister’s existence but the two had never been in contact. Her father met Ina’s mother shortly after separating from Burke’s mother, and Ina quickly came along. “My dad always told me I had a sister…then I was a little caught off guard. It wasn’t jealousy, but I wished I was the only one, you know, that daddy-daughter feel.” Burke does also have two other siblings, a half-sister named Nicole and a stepsister named Mandy.
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Following their father’s death, Ina reached out to Burke in a text, which kicked off a text and phone conversation that lasted several months. “My dad would be so happy. He really would be,” Burke said. But it was a little tough for her to make that move to meet. She told People, “With this business, at least for me, comes trust issues. Is she reaching out to me for something that she may need. We didn’t know each other. I didn’t know if she was actually my sister.” But when the two came face-to-face she said it “was like looking in a mirror. Like the freckles. We definitely look like our father.”
Burke took her father’s death hard. She posted an emotional tribute on social media with a throwback pic of the two hugging when she was a child. “Dad, if I had one more chance to have you here with me today, I would do things differently. Every day I would tell you how much I love you. I miss you so much already.”
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She previously revealed that she struggled with her relationship with her father — they were estranged for nearly a decade until he was in an accident. During an appearance on Bethenny Frankel’s talk show, she said, “I just wanted to make sure that everything in my life was OK, and I felt like there was that void in my life… [I]t was really important for me just to reach out to my dad. Just for me and to, like, have some closure if anything really were to happen.”
Now, she has a reminder of him every time she sees the ring her boyfriend, Matthew Lawrence, used to propose in May. It’s the diamond that her father used when he proposed to her mother.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bi5QFgLhFu3/?utm_source=ig_embedAfter the heartache of losing her father, we’re thrilled Burke has not only the ring, but now this happy relationship to celebrate. Here’s to many more great memories to be made.
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