'I Learned to Make Space for Forgiveness'

When he was a child, his bipolar mother was addicted to drugs—and even brought him along to buy heroin. But through therapy, Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby found peace with the past 'chaos

- ERIC ANDERSSON

When Cody Rigsby—the cheeky and effervescent Peloton instructor who took third place on Dancing With the Stars in 2021—teaches a spin class, it’s not just a workout. The sweat session is part dance party (Cody often shimmies to music from favorites like Britney Spears), part confessional (when it comes to duck sauce, “I don’t know portion control, y’all”) and part story time (on occasion he brings up his mom, Cindy). In those moments, though, “you’re only getting this little snackable version of me,” Cody tells People.

Now he’s serving up the full meal. In his new book XOXO, Cody—a mix of memoir, earnest self-love advice and relationship tips—the 36-year-old details what he calls the “chaos that I got swirled into” during his childhood. Though he describes Cindy, now 69, as a “cool” mom with a wicked sense of humor, she was also a drug addict who suffered from anxiety and bipolar disorder. When Cody was just 4 months old, his father (who was not married to Cindy) died of a drug overdose, leaving Cindy to raise her only child in a one-bedroom apartment in Burbank. Throughout Cody’s youth she struggled to hold down jobs, and the two sometimes had to take temporary housing in motels or stay with friends.

Writing about the painful parts of his youth was natural for Cody, who built his brand "on vulnerability and honesty," he says. "If my goal is to inspire people to love themselves, to sit with their uncomfortable thoughts, I'd be doing a disservice by holding back these parts of my life."