Hope Solo claims in her new memoir, Solo: A Memoir of Hope, that Maksim Chmerkovskiy slapped her across the face on Dancing With the Stars in 2011.
Maksim is reportedly adamant that this did NOT occur and shocked that the slap story somehow made it into the U.S. women's soccer team goaltender's book.
In it, she says Chmerkovskiy slapped her hard during a tense rehearsal while trying to put her head in the correct position for a dancing move. You buy it?
The two were partners who famously clashed on the show, but this was mostly attributed at the time to them each being intense competitors and athletes.
They've had dinner several times since the show, and she tweeted to Maks before the Olympics, offering him free tickets (Hope led the U.S. to gold, as usual).
Maks says he has no idea why Hope would publish such a false, defamatory statement and posted a statement on Twitter Thursday without naming names:
“Always hated hypocrites and liars… but when someone is both AND an opportunist, I just feel bad for them. Can’t win at someone’s expense,” he wrote.
Is it possible that she exaggerated an incident for her book just to make splashy headlines? Tell us what you think in the comments below.