Uh-oh….Did tough-talkin’ ballroom aficionado Maksim Chmerkovskiy — who recently ended his engagement to dancer Karina Smirnoff — have anything to do with Julianne Hough’s shocking split from up and coming country crooner Chuck Wicks?

That’s the story one Dancing With The Stars set insider is telling! Chuck reportedly kicked Julianne to the curb after discovering that she had been secretly “sexting” her fellow DWTS pro behind his back, a show snitch blabs in an article featured in the Nov. 30 issue of The National Enquirer. (Consider the source!)

“Publicly, Chuck and Julianne are saying the split was ‘mutual’ and they simply ‘needed some time apart, but the truth is that Chuck had been been using Julianne’s cell phone and discovered a slew of sexy text messages that she and Maks had been sending each other,” says the tipster, who asked not to be identified.

Chuck, 30, and Julianne, 21, met in August 2008 when they were both acts on Brad Paisley’s summer tour. The two fell in love almost instantly. The couple was later paired together for a season of fancy footing on the eighth installment of Dancing With The Stars. But it all went down hill for the lovebirds after Chuck, the once-promising “Stealing Cinderella” singer, fell into a career slump.

According to The Enquirer scoop, Chuck discovered the secret romance between Maks and Julianne when he used his girlfriend’s cell to make some emergency calls after the battery in his own phone died; that’s when he stumbled upon dozens of early morning, NC-17-rated text messages to Maks in Julianne’s call log.

Julianne broke down and confessed to the romance — saying that it began with Maks while she was in L.A., the tabloid writes. “It crushed Chuck,” says the tattle. “Julianne may look like an angel, but she’s a tough cookie. Chuck decided then and there to call it quits.”

Written by Castina on November 19th, 2009 | Tagged as: Dancing With The Stars,Julianne Hough,Maksim Chmerkovskiy