Emma Slater’s boyfriend is Alan Bersten, her fellow professional dancer on Dancing with the Stars. The pair publicly revealed their romance with an onstage kiss during the final performance of the DWTS: Live! tour in April 2025.
For fans who had spent months wondering whether their friendship had become something more, the moment offered a clear answer. There was no lengthy announcement or carefully worded statement. They paused during a routine, kissed and continued dancing as the audience cheered.
Their relationship grew out of years spent working together. Long before they became a couple, Slater and Bersten shared rehearsals, television appearances and the demanding schedule that comes with a career in dance.
Since making their romance public, they have offered occasional glimpses of family visits, affectionate moments and the support they give each other at work. Their story also follows separate relationships that became familiar to viewers of the same show.
Who Is Emma Slater’s Boyfriend?
Alan Bersten is a professional ballroom dancer best known for his work on Dancing with the Stars. His career has placed him alongside celebrity contestants, fellow professionals and the touring performers who bring the television show to live audiences.
Slater and Bersten knew each other for years through that shared world. Their relationship developed from an existing friendship rather than an introduction outside the entertainment industry.
That background gives them a practical understanding of each other’s work. Rehearsal days can be long, performances require intense preparation, and television competitions bring pressure that continues beyond the few minutes viewers see.
Bersten is both Slater’s partner in her personal life and a colleague who understands the demands of her profession. Their public comments have repeatedly highlighted encouragement and support.
Although fans enjoy their appearances together, both have also maintained their individual responsibilities as dancers and teachers.
How Emma Slater and Alan Bersten Met
Slater and Bersten met through Dancing with the Stars, where they became part of the same professional community.
Slater joined the programme’s dance troupe in 2012 before becoming a professional partner. Bersten also worked in the troupe before being promoted to the professional lineup in 2017.
For years, their connection was understood publicly as a friendship between colleagues. They performed within the same production, appeared at related events and became familiar faces to the show’s audience.
Working together over a long period can create a level of familiarity that is difficult to capture in a short interview. In their case, viewers saw the professional relationship well before learning about the romantic one.
Neither has supplied a complete account of the exact moment their feelings changed. Their public timeline is clearer than the private beginning of the relationship.
Romance Rumours Grew in October 2024
Speculation about Slater and Bersten became more noticeable in October 2024.
A photograph showing them holding hands circulated online, encouraging fans to question whether their relationship had moved beyond friendship. Their existing familiarity gave viewers plenty of past appearances to revisit.
At the time, however, the dancers did not offer a detailed public explanation. They continued working while questions about their personal connection followed them.
That period is best described as the point when public speculation intensified. It should not automatically be treated as a confirmed starting date for their relationship.
Looking back after their eventual announcement, fans interpreted some earlier moments differently. Still, the couple’s decision to remain quiet meant much of the discussion initially rested on observations rather than their own statements.
The Kiss That Made Their Relationship Public
The turning point arrived during the final night of the 2025 DWTS: Live! tour.
Slater and Bersten were performing together when they briefly stopped to share a kiss. They then returned to the routine, smiling as the crowd reacted.
An audience member recorded the moment and shared it on TikTok. The footage spread quickly because it appeared to answer the question fans had been asking for months.
It was also a fitting setting for two dancers whose friendship had developed through performance. Their relationship became public in the middle of the work that had originally brought them together.
The April 2025 kiss marked their public confirmation. It did not establish that the relationship itself had begun that evening.
Afterwards, Bersten told E! News that they were enjoying their time together without putting unnecessary pressure on it. His comments reinforced what the audience had seen while keeping the focus on their happiness.
Their DWTS Friends Already Knew
The reveal surprised viewers more than some people within the Dancing with the Stars circle.
Host Alfonso Ribeiro later explained that the connection itself was not news to those close to the couple. Slater was already a regular presence around his family, so his household knew about the relationship.
What he had not expected was the decision to reveal it through a kiss during the tour finale.
His comments showed that the couple had shared their relationship with trusted people before making it widely public. That gave them space to enjoy it within their personal circle first.
Ribeiro also expressed happiness for them. His response was supportive and suggested that their romance had already become an accepted part of life among friends.
For fans, this added context to the announcement. The kiss was a new public development in a relationship that people around them already understood.
Emma Joined Alan for a Family Celebration
In July 2025, Bersten shared photographs from a visit home for his niece’s bat mitzvah. Slater appeared in the collection, offering a glimpse of her spending time with his family.
The photographs included moments from the celebration and a river outing. One showed the couple kissing in the water, while another captured Slater on the dance floor with a young girl.
Compared with the dramatic tour reveal, these were more ordinary personal moments. They showed a weekend involving relatives, celebrations and time away from the television studio.
The visit also demonstrated that their relationship extended beyond rehearsals and public performances. Slater was joining Bersten for an occasion that mattered to his family.
It would be premature to turn that appearance into a prediction about marriage. Its significance was straightforward: they were comfortable sharing part of their family life with followers.
How They Support Each Other at Work
Being in the same competition could create complications, especially when each professional dancer is responsible for a different celebrity partner.
Slater has described a cooperative approach. In comments to PEOPLE during the season 34 period in 2025, she explained that Bersten had visited her rehearsal to help, and she had done the same for him.
Their assistance was practical rather than simply affectionate. It involved sharing experience and offering another perspective on the work.
That is a useful detail because it shows what support can look like in their particular profession. Encouragement is sometimes a helpful observation in rehearsal or a suggestion that makes a movement easier to understand.
Bersten has also emphasised remaining professional. Their relationship does not remove their responsibilities to their celebrity partners, the production or the viewers following the competition.
Emma Slater’s Previous Marriage to Sasha Farber
Before dating Bersten, Slater was married to fellow DWTS professional Sasha Farber.
Farber proposed during a live broadcast in 2016, and they married in Los Angeles in March 2018. Their relationship had already become familiar to fans through their years together on the programme.
Their separation became public in 2022. Slater filed for divorce in February 2023, and the divorce was finalised in May 2024.
Those dates are important because filing for divorce and completing the legal process are different events. Describing Slater as having finalised her divorce at the beginning of 2023 would be inaccurate.
Slater later spoke warmly about Farber and their continued support for one another. Their marriage ended, but they remained connected through their professional lives and shared history.
Alan Bersten Previously Dated Alexis Ren
Bersten also experienced a public romance connected to Dancing with the Stars before his relationship with Slater.
He and model Alexis Ren developed feelings while competing together during season 27 in 2018. Their connection became part of the public conversation surrounding their performances.
The relationship was brief, and they had separated by December that year.
Ren later explained that they were concentrating on their careers and individual growth. She spoke positively about Bersten while acknowledging that they were following separate paths.
That relationship involved a professional dancer and his celebrity partner. His romance with Slater developed within a different situation: two longtime professionals who had already spent years as colleagues.
Their Relationship Beyond the Ballroom
Slater and Bersten’s romance became public through a memorable performance, but the moments they shared afterwards gave it a more everyday shape.
A family celebration, a weekend outdoors and help during rehearsals have offered glimpses of companionship beyond the stage. They have allowed fans to see their affection without providing a complete account of their private lives.
Recent coverage has continued to describe them as a couple. Their publicly established relationship remains a romance between two dancers whose friendship came first.
For anyone asking who Emma Slater’s boyfriend is, the answer is Alan Bersten. The onstage kiss introduced that chapter to the audience, while their subsequent comments and appearances have shown how it fits into the lives they were already building.