Julianne Hough seems like she's everywhere all the time.
Along with being a staple in TV and film for years, she's also dabbled in music and launched
her own athleisure line.
But beneath her sparkly smile lies a darker story.
Here's the side of Julianne Hough you don't know.
After Helio Castroneves planted a surprise kiss on Hough during Dancing With the Stars
Season 5, rumors started flying that the dance partners' chemistry continued off the ballroom
floor.
It probably didn't help that Castroneves' then-fiancée, Aliette Vazquez, announced
the end of their engagement just a day after the dance duo took home the trophy.
"That trophy is is right now between my three Indianapolis 500 wins.
Right there the Mirrorball trophy.”
Along with that buzz, rumors also flew that Hough had split with her fiancé, dancer Zach
Wilson, earlier that year because she was involved with her previous Stars partner,
Apolo Ohno.
Hough, Ohno, and Castroneves insisted there were no romances among them, with Hough even
going so far as to declare to Extra,
"I am not a homewrecker, ladies and gentlemen."
Hough dated American Idol host and TV personality Ryan Seacrest for three years before they
split in 2013, citing their busy schedules as the reason for the breakup.
But the dancer would later elaborate on that PR-friendly excuse.
Hough seemed to imply that her heart was rarely in it while she was dating Seacrest.
"It doesn't feel real to me."
She told Redbook,
"I had one foot out because I didn't want to get hurt.
And I didn't say what was on my mind because I didn't want to ruffle any feathers.
I needed to be perfect.
[…] There was nothing wrong or bad, but there was nothing right."
"This is kinda quality time together.
Hello?
Clearly.
Clearly a bonding thing.”
Of her relationship with her then-boyfriend-turned-husband, hockey player Brooks Laich, she added:
"I'm not holding anything back, because I'd rather get my heart broken than never know
what it is to be completely, madly in love.
If I had been this open in my last relationship, who knows?"
We hope Seacrest didn't read that interview.
Following in the unfortunate footsteps of other clueless celebrities, Hough made headlines
for all the wrong reasons when she donned blackface while dressing up as the character
Suzanne "Crazy Eyes" Warren from the Netflix hit, Orange Is the New Black, for a Halloween
party, in 2013.
"Holy polar bear.”
Almost immediately, she was blanketed in harsh criticism across social media, as well as
from fellow stars.
Hough issued an apology on Twitter, saying, in part,
"It certainly was never my intention to be disrespectful or demeaning to anyone in any
way.
I realize my costume hurt and offended people and I truly apologize."
Hough also apologized to the actress who plays Suzanne, Uzo Aduba, who called the costume
an "unfortunate event," according to E! News.
Hough temporarily left Dancing with the Stars in 2008 to pursue a career in country music.
When that didn't pan out, she gave the movie biz a go.
But despite steady work in the industry, the majority of her films have been ripped to
shreds by critics.
"Some things are just like wow in your face.”
Among her biggest bombs: her feature-film debut, Burlesque, which received universally
bad reviews; the Nicholas Sparks drama Safe Haven, which earned a terrible 13 percent
rating on Rotten Tomatoes; and Dirty Grandpa, which bombed with both critics and audiences.
"Tell me about it, stud.”
On the bright side: Hough did receive good notices for playing Sandy in FOX's well-received
Grease Live! in 2016, as well as for her performance as Jolene in Dolly Parton's Heartstrings in
2019, suggesting TV remains the best place for her acting career.
During a 2014 segment on Extra, Hough told what she thought was a cute anecdote about
mistaking a compliment from Mean Girls alum and Dancing with the Stars contestant Jonathan
Bennett as a come on.
She told Mario Lopez,
"[Bennett] tweeted at me last year and said I had a nice butt, and I thought, 'Oh he's
hitting on me - I should try to go on a date with him!'"
When asked what happened after that, Hough replied,
"He's gay - so I was like, 'That's not gonna work!'"
No big deal, right?
It turns out that despite years of rumors about his private life, Bennett hadn't yet
come out.
In fact, it wasn't until three years later that the actor publicly confirmed he was in
a relationship with The Amazing Race alum Jaymes Vaughan, via E! Online.
As of yet, Hough and Bennett have never said another word about her slip.
While Hough seems happy with hockey star Brooks Laich, she doesn't need to tell us every sordid
detail about their love life.
Case in point: her 2016 interview with Cosmo, during which she talked about everything from
hooking up with him in a car-rental parking lot, to whether or not she likes to be dominated.
File these anecdotes under "things we never, ever wanted to know."
"I'm about like what makes me feel good.”
In July 2019, Hough revealed on Laich's How Men Think podcast that she and her hubs worked
with a romance educator, at which point the couple reportedly took tests to determine
their quote "intimacy languages."
Claiming that her own curiosity has been a lifesaver in her own life, as well as her
relationship, Hough explained,
"We've been curious about, like, 'Hey, something doesn't feel right.
Instead of just accepting it for how it is, let's look into something.'"
Hough and her four brothers and sisters were raised in the Mormon faith by their parents,
in Orem, Utah.
Hough has spoken openly about her strict childhood upbringing, telling the New York Post in 2013
that some of the rules included quote, "no drinking, no caffeine, no smoking, no swear
words [and] no R-rated movies."
But after moving to Los Angeles, Hough slowly learned to loosen up.
"Is that a tequila sunrise?”
“I smelled it first, it definitely is.”
Hough told the outlet,
"I didn't drink when I first came to Hollywood.
[Now] I don't think it's going to define who I am if I am at Chateau Marmont having a glass
of wine."
"I think you know a lot of people are like you've changed, and your response should be
like, thank you.”
She said she's no longer practicing the Mormon faith, and confessed to Vulture that she's
given and received a lap dance, smoked a quote "fattie," and gone commando.
All of which we didn't need to know.
While Hough seemed candid about her split from Ryan Seacrest, there may have been more
to their breakup than she was willing to reveal.
An insider close to the Idol host told The National Enquirer that it may have actually
been Hough's own hard partying that led to the end of their romance.
"Liquid courage, we'll just put it that way.”
The source claimed,
"Ryan tried his best to keep up with Julianne, but in the end he just couldn't.
He's older, already established and set in his ways, and he was getting tired of telling
her to lay off the alcohol and stop overindulging.
They constantly fought because he wanted her to slow down and she wanted him to lighten
up and enjoy life more.
[Seacrest] couldn't stand to watch her throw her life away."
It's good to be Julianne's brother Derek, because that means you have access to all
of her stunning BFFs.
Derek briefly dated The Vampire Diaries star Nina Dobrev after meeting her through his
sister.
A source dished to Us Weekly,
"[Nina] was hanging a lot with Derek's sister Julianne.
Then she fell for him."
Unfortunately, the romance wasn't built to last, and E! News reported that they split
just six weeks after going public.
They all still remain friendly, and Dobrev was even in Julianne's wedding to Brooks.
When Amber Rose competed on Dancing with the Stars, Hough offered up some criticism that
many perceived as unkind.
During a September 2016 performance, Rose wrapped a leg around Maksim Chmerkovskiy,
after which Hough sniffed,
"I actually feel a little uncomfortable."
The comment offended Rose, who later said on her Loveline With Amber Rose podcast,
"I did feel body-shamed.
You know, all the beautiful professional dancers that are on Dancing With The Stars, I mean
— they dress very sexy, and they do the splits and they grind up on these guys, and
they look absolutely stunning and get a standing ovation.
And me, and my body […] made her uncomfortable."
"I'm very voluptuous and it really hurt my feelings so I felt like I had to speak up
about it"
Hough later tried to clear things up, telling E! News,
"They can put those sound bites anywhere.
My 'uncomfortable' comment was about the fact that I felt like I wanted more out of the
performance — when someone is doing a hot […] dance like that without the right amount
of energy that is required, it can be uncomfortable to watch."
The next night, Hough offered a quasi-apology when she hugged Rose and said,
"That is not who I am, and I'm sorry if that made you feel that way."
Hough confessed that when she was in her late teens, she had an unhealthy relationship with
food and body image, but has stopped short of saying she had an eating disorder.
She admitted to Shape,
"When I look at pictures of myself when I was 19, my body was bangin', but I was killing
myself.
I was working out two and a half hours a day and eating the bare minimum to survive.
I was so miserable.
I wasn't healthy.
[…] Now I'm embracing the fact that I'm a woman with curves."
"I'm really excited.
This is a different chapter.”
Now that Hough is healthier, she's happier, but that doesn't mean she gets a pass on the
pressure to fit a certain mold.
In the Fall of 2019, Variety reported that Hough was let go from America's Got Talent
after facing scrutiny behind the scenes as a judge.
The outlet noted that Hough and fellow judge Gabrielle Union were often critiqued for their
appearances, which reportedly caused tension on set.
Hough, however, has since denied the claim's accuracy in the context of her own experience
- but did not return for another season of the hit competition series.
"I love my shape because it's nobody else's, it's mine, I work hard for it.
I think that your body is your body and you should own it and you should love it.”
Hough claims that her relationship with husband Brooks, whom she married in 2017, took a deeper
turn when she revealed to him that she wasn't only attracted to men.
She shared with Women's Health in 2019,
"I [told him], 'You know I'm not straight, right?'
And he was like, 'I'm sorry, what?'
I was like, 'I'm not.
But I choose to be with you.'"
"I've never labeled myself or have identified with any kind of labels.
Love is love.”
Hough didn't elaborate on her orientation beyond that, nor did she label herself as
part of any particular identity beyond, quote, "not straight."
Hough's newfound honesty and candor can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but it's
possible her Mormon upbringing played a role in her taking time to figure herself out.
"I kept it to myself, and I didn't really talk about it cuz this was just normal right?
Wrong.
It's not normal."
Hough - as well as one in 10 women of reproductive age - suffers from endometriosis.
As she revealed to Women's Health, she went years without knowing why she was in so much
pain and assumed she just had intense periods and bad cramps - cramps so extreme that she
once went to the emergency room during a commercial break on Dancing with the Stars.
While no one in the ER knew what was wrong with her back then, the actress-dancer finally
got a diagnosis after some testing and exams.
She told the magazine,
"At the time, I felt very lonely and like nobody understood me.
I had no idea that [so many women] had endometriosis.
[…] Because I'm a competitor, I felt like I had to push through the pain and just work."
"I pushed through the pain and I tried to ignore it.
But I shouldn't have.
My symptoms weren't normal.
They were caused by endometriosis.”
Other endometriosis symptoms can include pain during intercourse, as well as heavy or irregular
periods.
She added,
"You have two choices: You can hate it, or it can just become part of you.
It doesn't need to define you, it's just an aspect of who you are.
It's all about connecting to your body, loving it unconditionally, and trusting how you feel."
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