Helio's Dancing Card Cleared of Fiancée

Wed., Nov. 28, 2007 11:10 AM PST by Gina Serpe

You win some, you lose some.

The "some," in Helio Castroneves' case, being reality-show championships and fiancées, respectively.

Just hours after Dancing with the Stars' resident charmer quickstepped his way into the winner's circle—getting cheered on by family and friends but not, rather tellingly, his fiancée—Aliette Vazquez confirmed to Michael Yo's Yo on E! satellite radio show that she and the race car driver have put the brakes on their betrothal.

"I haven't talked to him in two months," Vazquez said. "I am devastated."

While Vazquez, a Cuban fashion designer, did not give a reason for calling off the engagement, she hinted that the nuptials nixing was a long time coming.

"I came out for the first episode of Dancing and haven't seen him since," she said.

Castroneves himself confirmed the split.

"I can confirm that Aliette Vazquez and I have called off our engagement and are no longer together," he said. "At this time, I would prefer to keep my private life private."

Rumors of premarital discord first hit the couple last month, when Castroneves told Entertainment Tonight he and Vazquez had tentatively pushed back their wedding date to January 2008.

"Everything is happening so quick," the professional speed demon said at the time. "The [IndyCar Series] championship is over, the dancing started, and basically, I was like, 'Ali, let's take it easy. Otherwise, we will be divorced before we get married!'"

At the time, Castroneves also said he planned on enlisting his professional partner Julianne Hough to teach Vazquez to dance in preparation for their wedding. Hough, who called off a wedding of her own to dancer Zach Wilson last spring, said she would "absolutely" be on board for the lessons.

While the vow cancellation is unfortunate, it's not wholly surprising, given the cursed track record of the private lives of this season's Dancing with the Stars contestants.

This year's unlucky batch of dancers suffered parental deaths, wildfire evacuations, rehab-bound children, on-air fainting spells, betrothal busts and, in the season's final moments, brief hospitalizations.

Mark Ballas, one of the show's professional favorites who was long thought to be a frontrunner for the championship title before his and Sabrina Ryan's upset elimination, was notably absent from the latter half of last night's Dancing finale, getting whisked away from the studio by an ambulance after dislocating his shoulder in his final performance.

During rehearsals for the finale show, he complained of shoulder and back pain, and halfway through his live cha-cha, he refrained from performing several of the dance's signature moves, instead keeping his left arm close to his body for the remainder of the boogie.

Judge Bruno Tonioli said after the show that Ballas had even passed out in the studio corridor prior to his performance.

The last-minute drama was par for the course for the season. Not that ABC—or the viewing audience—seemed to be put off by the controversies.

The live results show averaged 24.9 million viewers during its two-hour filler-filled broadcast, marking the network's largest draw for a Tuesday night in more than seven years.