‘Dancing With the Stars’ Fans, Rejoice! Peta Murgatroyd Is Returning to the Series After 2 Seasons Off

After a two-season hiatus, Peta Murgatroyd is officially rejoining the cast of Dancing With the Stars for season 28. “I’m overwhelmed with excitement,” the Australian dancer, 33, gushed to Us Weekly. “I’m excited and happy to be back with my family. Honestly, I just missed everybody so much!”

Peta continued, “As a lot of people know, it’s such a close and tight-knit family, so I’m just happy to be back with everybody.” How sweet. We’re happy to have her back, too! Peta and her husband, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who also appeared on the hit competition series for 17 seasons, made the choice to take a hiatus from DWTS after their son, Shai, was born in 2017. 

However, now the pair’s little one is 2 years old, Peta explained that she’s 100 percent ready for her comeback. “I definitely wanted this to happen. I hoped that I could make this work for a couple of months now and was praying and hoping that it would all align,” she told the publication. “It was the perfect time for my family. Maks has other things going on and Shai is well taken care of and it was just a good time for us.”

As it happens, though, getting back into dancing shape wasn’t exactly a cakewalk. “It is very demanding,” Peta admitted. “I have been getting my body as prepared as I possibly could for this. I am in shape. I hope to be in better shape by the time we return to air on September 16.”

Given Peta’s incredible success on the show in the past — she took home the big win in seasons 14 and 22 — we have no doubt that she has what it takes to come out on top again!

Be sure to tune into the season 28 premiere of Dancing With the Stars on ABC on Monday, September 16, at 8 p.m. ET.