ET spoke to the couple at 'New You' Magazine's seventh annual Beauty Awards in Miami Beach Thursday.
Peta Murgatroyd is opening up about her husband, Maksim Chmerkovskiy's harrowing escape from Ukraine amid its ongoing war with Russia. ET spoke to the couple at New You magazine's seventh annual Beauty Awards at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Thursday night, where Peta was presented with a New You Beauty Award for her product, Peta Jane Tanning Mousse, in New You magazine’s "Good Day Sunshine" category.
"To get the phone call and to see him frantically packing his bags trying to get out of the hotel was just like, I had a heart attack nearly. I had to sit myself down and calm down for him," Peta said of the moment Maks began making his way out of Ukraine. "And then the next eight days [that Maks was there] were life changing. Absolutely life changing."
"I mean, I literally wrote him a text, almost a goodbye text like if something happens," she added, before getting emotional.
Since first arriving back in the United States last month, Maks has returned to Poland to aide with efforts on the ground. There, he started his own charitable organization called Baranova 27, and teamed up with Bethenny Frankel to further aide Ukraine via her BStrong initiative.
But being back in the U.S. following another trip to the region hasn't been easy for Maks, who said he's still working on finding some kind of "normality."
"The fact that we’re here, the culminating moment is like, how do you get back to the normality of it all? What’s the new normal? For me, it doesn’t exist without the association of the war that is ongoing. It hasn’t subsided. It’s just the relocation of some things," Maks, who returned from Poland earlier this month, explained. "I was lucky that Peta was with me on this. I made that commitment. We are working with Barnova 27, my organization. We’re pushing out, we’re working on other ways of getting other things into the country and what’s needed. We’re working on developing livable towns, makeshift towns that can maybe serve as something else; try to attract technology, 3D printing and so on."
Maks continues to shed light onto the atrocities occurring in Ukraine and is working to remind those in the U.S., that the war is still happening, and that the Ukrainian people need help.
"This is what I'm dedicating myself [to], but I think it’s very important to also make sure people don’t forget about it," he stressed. "I realized when I got home that this is so far away and it’s hard to retell the story over and over. So, I’m just using this opportunity to also say like, 'it’s going on right now.' People are just now starting to need even more help and we should stay with it."
Maks isn't the only one in Hollywood shedding a light on the crisis in Ukraine. The country's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made a public plea to Hollywood and the world, in a video message shared during Sunday night's 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards. While Maks said he didn't see it, he supports the message Zelenskyy is sending and the job he's doing in Ukraine.
“To be honest with you I didn't see that message but … I think that guy is showing exactly why a majority of human beings in that country chose him to be their leader," he shared. "[He’s] an amazing example of somebody stepping up to the plate and, for once, actually doing their job even though they may not be a career politician."
RELATED CONTENT
