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"Cheryl Burke is so beautiful and an amazing dancer and that's what people should concentrate on," Hewitt, 29, who last year fought back against criticism of her bikini body, said Wednesday on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Burke, 24, was recently criticized by DWTS pros Louis Van Amstel and Maksim Chmerkovskiy for gaining a few pounds over the summer – to which the Ghost Whisperer star responds: "I think [people] feel like people don't have any feelings."
Hewitt, who has sported a noticeably slimmer physique, says she has been training for a marathon since last year.
"My body just changed," she says. "When you're running that much and working out like that, that's what happens. I was happy with myself in those photos, and I'm still happy."
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