Season 8 “Dancing With the Stars” champ Shawn Johnson mended her rift with fellow-former gymnast, Nastia Liukin. The two were drawn apart by the outside world, as many tried to pit the two against one another in the competition world. However, they were able to recover their friendship years later.
“To be able to come back and be like, ‘What went wrong? I’m so sorry. I’ve truly missed you and I’ve had this hole in my heart,'” Johnson told E! News.
“I feel like we get so caught up in a world of like, ‘It looks like they’re doing this, or it feels like they’re upset.’ Or, you let other people speak into you, other than you,” Johnson added.
Prior to Her Wedding, Shawn Johnson Reached Out to Nastia Liukin
The year was 2016 and Johnson was set to marry Andrew East. However, she felt that something was missing as she was planning her big day.
In an interview with Access Hollywood, Johnson said she reached out to Liukin and asked her to go to lunch.
“Ever since then, it’s just like we haven’t skipped a beat,” she told the outlet. “It was amazing. It also was really confusing for both of us because we were really nervous. We didn’t know how to rekindle that … and it was truly within like two minutes we were back to being best friends.”
Meanwhile, in an interview with NBC Sports, Liukin said that it was the realization that she hadn’t received an invite to Johnson’s wedding that really got her thinking.
“That’s when it really hit me because I was like, oh my gosh, this girl that I had been best friends with for so many years and this moment that’s about to happen in her life that is the biggest moment of her life, and I’m not going to be there. When [the reporter] said that, I was like, I have to fix this,” she said.
Not to fret, however. Johnson did end up inviting Liukin to her wedding.
“I said, ‘I know this is short notice, but I can’t imagine my wedding without you there.’ She made it and it was the greatest thing ever,” Johnson told E! News.
Fans Adored Seeing Shawn Johnson & Nastia Liukin Together at the ESPYs in 2023
Johnson and Liukin stepped out together at the 2023 ESPY awards for a bestie date night. Fans loved seeing the two together, as evidenced by comments on a Reddit thread.
“Individually as influencers I am meh about them, but I will never not find it cute seeing them together being buds. Nastia comes across as stiff a lot of the time, but she is actually pretty funny and relaxed when she’s interacting with Shawn,” one person wrote.
“Their looks were so on point,” someone else said.
