Julianne Hough credits ex-husband Brooks Laich with helping her heal her childhood trauma during their time together.
When the former couple wed in 2017, the dancer felt a need to “reconnect” with her 10-year-old self, she said on the “Jamie Kern Lima Show” Tuesday.
“What did I need at 10? I really needed safety and almost, like, a father figure to come in and be that grounding force of stability,” the “Dancing With the Stars” co-host, 36, explained.
Their dynamic gave Hough a “little girl feeling” with “stability and [a] stable man” at home.
“He provided such a beautiful foundation for me to be a little girl,” the actress continued, recalling how she “was able to start that healing.”
Hough subsequently became “more of a woman” and “listen[ed] to [her] voice more” as she began “shifting and changing and questioning.”
When the first part of the podcast episode dropped, Hough gave some insight into the trauma she experienced in her young life.
The “Safe Haven” star revealed that she was sexually abused by a neighbor at age 4.
“There was not a lot of repercussion for what had happened,” she told listeners on Aug. 14. “Nobody did anything.”
Hough has been pulling back the curtain on her childhood and her love life all month while promoting her book, “Everything We Never Knew.”
During a recent “Armchair Expert” episode, the Emmy winner admitted that her relationship with Laich, 41, began “unraveling” shortly after they tied the knot in Idaho.
“I had this marriage to this guy who represented more of a father figure to me, and while he was changing, I was changing,” Hough said, clarifying that the retired NHL player was “contracting” as she “expand[ed].”
Ending their romance felt like “uprooting” everything she had “put in place for [her] control and … protection.”
Hough, however, called her ex a “great human being” and labeled both their marriage and their breakup “exactly right.”
News broke of the former couple’s split in May 2020, with the duo writing a joint statement about the “abundance of love and respect” they still shared for each other.
The “America’s Got Talent” judge filed for divorce five months later, and it was finalized in February 2022.
Laich has since moved on with CrossFit athlete Katrín Tanja Davíðsdóttir.
Hough, for her part, hasn’t gone public with a new romance besides kissing model Charlie Wilson in November 2021 in Los Angeles — and teasing her plans for a “hot girl summer” in 2023.
