In between their busy lives in and out of the ballroom, Jenna Johnson and Valentin Chmerkovskiy seek out the little moments in their daily lives that make them feel at home.
The “Dancing with the Stars” pros and real-life husband and wife are currently competing in Season 35; Johnson, Harry Shum Jr. and Chmerkovskiy is partnered with Jenna Dewan.
Paired with trained dancers, the duo has frequently been at the top of the leaderboards since the new “DWTS” season premiered in mid-September. In the October 6 episode, Mariah Carey Night, the couples tied for second place with the same scores.
So how competitive are they with each other?
“I’ve never been competitive with Jenna. I’m just passionate about creating, I’m just passionate about my art, my work, or the effort I put into ‘Dancing with the Stars,'” Chmerkovskiy, 40, told TODAY.com. “So it’s not a contest of can I do better than him? It’s a contest of can I do my best work? And I think we can both do that. I can support him and be ‘competitive’ at the same time.”
When they’re not creating choreography or rehearsing with celebrities, they enjoy spending quality time with their 3-year-old son, Rome. They say the time they spend together makes life more “wonderful.”
“I think we forget that we live such busy lives and experience so many amazing things,” Johnson, 32, told TODAY.com while chatting about the “Make Your World More Amazing” campaign. “Like, I dress for a living, that’s my job. But I really think the great parts of my life are being at home with my son and my husband. Those are the moments I cherish. That’s what a luxury life looks like to me.”
“Obviously we are in a really unique situation and season in our lives, but these moments are so amazing to me,” he adds.
The couple, who recently became homeowners, are embracing finding new ways to make routines, and even household chores, more enjoyable.
“Your home is your space. This is your sanctuary. This is your sanctuary, and the smell of it, the effort you make to clean together as a family and make it fun, those are the things we connect with,” says Chmerkovskiy.
They also link to how they decompress post-show. After a rough week of “DWTS” and surviving another elimination, the couple likes to “debrief” and go out to dinner.
“A lot of people don’t work with their spouses and in a public setting where we’re perceived as public. It’s crazy and there’s no real plan on this,” Johnson says. “I’m really proud of our relationship and the work Val and I have done (together).”
When it comes to maintaining a healthy work-life balance, she values three things: communication, trust, and putting each other first.
“I think people say: ‘Oh, you’re so lucky. You work together. You see each other all the time.’ But we are at work. “We are on the set,” he adds. “We’re both so passionate about what we do, so we have blinders on. We’re really focused on our partners and our dancing and making it the best it can be.”
Competitive or not, they say a healthy balance is to ensure they have date nights, “where we just sit and debrief and talk and see how each other are doing.”
Of course, spending time with his sons “brings us the greatest joy and happiness.”
“It’s definitely a balancing act. But I’m proud of how we did it because it’s crazy working with your significant other,” Johnson says. “Despite the chaos of our lives, we love those consistent things that make us feel at home, calm our nerves, and relax us.”